It's better to print money to settle depositors and win 2020 elections - Kwame Pianim

As part of devising strategic ways to settle depositors whose monies have been locked up at various institutions due to the financial sector clean-up, Ghanaian economist, Kwame Pianim has placed a clarion call to the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to print cedi notes to settle them.

According to him, the financial sector clean-up exercise is making the New Patriotic Party (NPP) unpopular, hence, may have dire consequences on the party in the upcoming general elections.

“My suggestion was to have let the Bank of Ghana find a means to pay the affected customers even if it involved printing of money…we are making it difficult for the NPP to win this election,” he made known on Citi news.

In his view, the unfortunate incident needed to happen due to the weak supervision of the sector then, therefore, government must pay these affected persons to regain their confidence to continue to save and invest in the financial sector.

Aside spending taxpayers' money in a bid to solving the problem, Mr Pianim is calling on government to quicken the process of prosecuting the defaulters.

“How long has it taken us to put some of these people on trial?" he quizzed.

He also advised government to set up a Special Asset Recovery Trusts which will be responsible for the sale of assets of individuals and institutions behind the financial sector crisis.

Late last year, President Akufo-Addo granted an executive approval for the expenditure of GH ¢15.6 billion to save the funds of depositors who had their monies locked up in some financial institutions two years ago.

In a press release from the presidency, it was pointed out that the money released is expected to improve the liquidity of the financial sector.

Earlier, the banking sector reforms carried out by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), spearheaded by the Bank of Ghana cleaned up affected a total of 420 institutions.