Pay all locked-up deposits, investments in full as promised – GPCC to govt

The Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council (GPCC) has called on the Finance Ministry, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to, “without delay, take steps as promised earlier by the President, in his New Year message, to pay, in full, monies owed thousands of individual Ghanaians and institutions as a result of the financial sector cleanup“.

In a communiqué issued by the GPCC after deliberations at the 2020 Conference of Heads of Churches and Organisations held at the Pentecost Convention Centre, Gomoa Fetteh from 4 to 7 February 2020, the Council said: “The cleanup has brought untold hardships to many Ghanaian individuals, families, businesses as well as non-profit institutions, thus, threatening the very survival of many families, especially the very vulnerable populations at the micro level”.

“As a Council, we are willing and committed to mobilising and joining the masses on the streets to demand full payments of all locked-up funds of ordinary Ghanaians should government fail to address the issue in the shortest possible time”.

In his Christmas message to Ghanaians last year, the President said customers of all the collapsed financial institutions – banks, microfinance firms, savings & loans companies, finance houses and fund managers – will have a full refund of their locked-up deposits and investments.

“Thus far, the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Ghana have worked together to guarantee payments of 100% of deposits of customers of the failed banks – which is being done”, the President announced, adding: “I have directed the Ministry of Finance to work with the Bank of Ghana to ensure that same applies to customers of microfinance and savings and loans companies whose licences have been revoked”.

The financial sector cleanup exercise saw the collapse of nine local banks, 347 microfinance companies, 23 savings & loans and finance houses, as well as 53 fund management companies.

Justifying the collapse of those firms, Mr Akufo-Addo said: “We have had to take painful but necessary measures to sanitise and save the banking system – a process which I know has brought discomfort to many a household”.

“It is worthy to note, however, that the jobs of some 6,500 workers were saved as a result, instead of the 10,000 that could have been lost, in addition to the protection of funds of 4.6 million depositors”, the President added.