Minister predicts doom for NPP in 2020

The Deputy Minister for Works and Housing, Eugene Boakye Antwi, has revealed that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government is in trouble ahead of the 2020 elections.

His comments come on the back of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) revoking the licences of twenty-three insolvent savings and loans companies and microfinance companies in the country.

The Central bank said, "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."

It added: "It is the Bank of Ghana's assessment that these institutions have no reasonable prospects of recovery, and that their continued existence poses severe risks to the stability of the financial system and to the interests of their depositors."

These actions 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.

But the Deputy Minister, who doubles as the Member of Parliament for Subin Constituency said: "Revocation shouldn't end there, prosecution must follow otherwise Ghanaians will not know the difference between Mahama's administration and us; we will be tagged as deceitful."

He stated that if no prosecution is done, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's fight against corruption will be questioned.

"Eyes are on us to deliver and so we must be careful…the complaints are too many. If something radical doesn’t happen…I speak today as a Member of Parliament and there are a lot of complaints from our constituents. Something must be done; it must not be business as usual; it is time to act. We are in for hard times if something radical doesn’t happen in terms of prosecution," he said on Accra-based Peace FM.