Financial Sector Clean Up: Bank of Ghana approach insensitive, callous - Sammy Gyamfi

National Communications Officer of opposition National Democratic Congress ( NDC), Sammy Gyamfi has stressed that the approach adopted by the Bank of Ghana to clean up the financial sector is highhanded, insensitive and callous.

Speaking on TV3’s NewDay programme monitored by MyNewsGh.com, a fiery Sammy Gyamfi said that the approach of revoking licences of insolvent financial institutions and appointing receivers to wind them down was inappropriate.

“That approach, we maintain as a party is highhanded, it was not well-thought through, it is bound to fail, it is already failing, and it is worsening the bad situation it was supposed to remedy…We are saying that a bailout approach would have been far better than the insensitive and callous approach the Akufo Addo government has adopted in killing people’s businesses…” he maintained.

His assertions follow Bank of Ghana’s revocation of licences of eight finance houses and fifteen savings and loans companies a week ago.

These actions according to the Central Bank were taken pursuant to Section 123 (1) of the Banks and Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions Act, 2016 (Act 930), which requires the Bank of Ghana to revoke the licence of a Bank or Specialised Deposit-Taking Institution (SDI) where the Bank of Ghana determines that the institution is insolvent. The Bank of Ghana has also appointed Mr. Eric Nipah as a Receiver for the specified institutions in line with section 123 (2) of Act 930.

According to the Central Bank, the revocation of the licences of these institutions has become necessary because they are insolvent even after a reasonable period within which the Bank of Ghana has engaged with them in the hope that they would be recapitalized by their shareholders to return them to solvency.