Over 96% of locked-up funds in collapsed banks ‘fully paid’ – Deputy Finance Minister

A Deputy Finance Minister, Charles Adu Boahen, has said a big chunk of depositors locked-up funds during the banking sector clean-up have been settled.

He said at least 96% of persons whose monies were locked-up in the collapsed banks and saving and loans companies have received their deposits.

Mr Charles Adu Boahen disclosed that 20% of the funds were paid in cash while 80% was paid through bond issues.

“The bonds were structured to pay out over four years,” Mr Adu Boahen said on the floor of parliament during the debate on the Mid-year Budget Review in Parliament on Tuesday, July 28, 2020.

His revelations follow a promise by former President John Mahama to pay depositors locked-up monies within a year if elected to once again assume the helm of the country's affairs in the December 2020 presidential polls.

Speaking at an event in the UPSA auditorium to outdoor his running mate, Prof Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, Mr Mahama said the next National Democratic Congress (NDC) government will not put up any long-term payment plans that will further worsen the living conditions of the victims of the collapsed institutions.

However, according to Mr Boahen, the claim that funds are still locked-up are untrue, stressing that less than 4% of these monies remain unpaid.

The Deputy Finance Minister said the Nana Akufo-Addo government has set aside GH¢3.1 billion for such payments.

He said the rest of the payments will be done when the court grants the receiver the right to liquidate the assets of the defunct financial institutions.

As part of Ghana’s financial sector clean, the central bank revoked the licences of 347 Microfinance Companies and 23 Savings and Loans and Finance House Companies in 2019, citing insolvency, mismanagement and fraud in some cases.

The Bank of Ghana also revoked the licences of some banks between 2017 and 2019.