We have saved the investments of 14 million Ghanaians - Dep. Finance Minister

A Deputy Finance Minister has said the Akufo-Addo led administration has saved the investments of 14 million Ghanaians as a result of the banking sector clean-up exercise.

According to Abena Osei-Asare, the notion by the opposition National Democratic Congress that the ruling New Patriotic Party ought to have given money to the insolvent banks to repay its shareholders is not prudent.

Speaking at the party’s 2020 Manifesto launch on Saturday, August 22, Mrs. Osei Asare said; “Our banking industry for instance was on the verge of collapse but we have fixed it and saved 14 million Ghanaians from losing their investments.

“We the [NPP] were concerned about saving the whole banking industry rather than pleasing the same people who supervised the near the collapse of the industry.”

The Deputy Minister reiterated Ghana’s banking industry remains sound, solvent and resilient despite the adverse impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We have created an atmosphere that has renewed the confidence of the private sector in the economy and have set this country once again on the right path and the results are being seen all over,” she added.

As part of its efforts to restore confidence in the banking and specialized deposit-taking sectors, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) embarked on a clean-up exercise in August 2017 to resolve insolvent financial institutions whose continued existence posed risks to the interest of depositors.

The clean-up saw the revocation of licenses of 9 universal banks, 347 microfinance companies, 39 micro credit companies or money lenders, 15 savings and loans companies, 8 finance house companies, and two non-bank financial institutions.

The move by the central bank was a comprehensive assessment of the savings and loans and finance house sub-sectors carried out by the BoG in the last few years after it identified serious breaches.