No need to rush for your monies – Ofori-Atta to Ghanaians

Several Ghanaians have thronged their various financial institutions to withdraw their savings and investments to avoid losing both their principal and interests.

This panic withdrawal is based on reports that some customers of Databank and Ecobank have lost hundreds of cedis on their investments which has to an extreme affected their principal [initial deposit].

Reacting to this at a press conference in Accra on Monday, December 5, the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has said there was no need for customers to withdraw their monies from banks and savings and loan institutions.

Financial stability fund has been established by government to ensure that depositors' funds are secured.

"There is no need to rush for your money because certain forbearances will also be given to these institutions to help so in essence, this is an opportunity to have a pretty orderly exit through this and use that period also to build up an export driven economy to get our macro statistics in order." Ken Ofori-Atta said.

It would be recalled that on November 23, 2022, some customers of Databank said they were unable to access their funds and investments.

Taking to microblogging site - Twitter - to lament, they noted that there had been random deductions on their monies in the past few weeks.

Apart from Databank, others have also noted that Ecobank has been using the mark-to-market approach for its EDC investments and other investment packages as well.

Some Ghanaians explained that the act was not deliberate but an instruction from the Securities and Exchange Commission for banks to use the mark-to-market approach.

This market-to-market approach enables customers get the market value of their returns and it cuts across all financial institutions in the country.

Meanwhile, government has outdoored a debt restructuring programme to help stabilize the economy which has taken a nose dive.

ESA/FNOQ