Arrest BoG officials who supervised banking rot – Ken Agyapong

Member of Parliament for Assin Central Constituency Kennedy Ohene Agyapong has called for the arrest of the Bank of Ghana officials under whose watch some local banks allegedly failed to operate within the banking laws, thereby leading to their eventual collapse.

Aside from the BoG officials failing to play their supervisory role well, Mr Agyapong accused them of also allegedly conniving with the owners of the failed banks to dupe unsuspecting customers.

Speaking on Net 2 Wednesday, August 19, the lawmaker said when it comes to the issue of the banking sector, “I will put former President Mahama aside and deal with the Bank of Ghana officials who watched on for these banks to act this way”.

“The officials especially at the Banking Supervision Department who watched on for these banks to violate the laws should be arrested immediately,” he said.

“They connived with the owners of the bank to act this way,” he alleged.

Some nine local banks went under during the cleaning exercise undertaken in the banking sector by the current leadership of the central bank between 2017 and 2019.

Similarly, 347 microfinance companies (of which 155 had already ceased operations), 39 microcredit companies/money lenders (10 of which had already ceased operations), 15 savings and loans companies, eight (8) finance house companies, and two (2) non-bank financial institutions that had already ceased operations also collapsed.

The current leadership of the central bank assured Ghanaians that the remaining banks remain resilient.

”The Bank of Ghana is committed to ensuring that the banking, SDI, and NBFI sectors remain resilient, inclusive, and supportive of Ghana’s economic growth trajectory.

“To ensure that the remaining institutions remain resilient going forward, the Bank of Ghana will remain vigilant, intensify on-site examinations and enforcement actions including the application of sanctions for non-compliance with statutory, prudential and other requirements, and ensure that early warning signs of distress are mitigated by regulated institutions expeditiously.

“The Bank of Ghana will also work with ARB Apex Bank to reposition the rural and community banking sector, to enable them to better support rural economic development.

“Furthermore, the Bank of Ghana and the Government of Ghana will also launch the commencement of operations of the Ghana Deposit Protection Scheme in September 2019 to further strengthen protection of depositors’ interests,” the BoG said.