CASLOC to vote against Akufo-Addo over locked deposits

The Coalition of Affected Savings and Loans Customers (CASLOC) has reiterated the readiness of its members to vote out the Akufo-Addo government in the 2020 polls for failing to address the plight of the about 3.3 million depositors of financial institutions whose licences were revoked by the Bank of Ghana and other regulators.

They argued that if less than a hundred thousand customers of DKM and the likes could send the National Democratic Congress (NDC) into opposition in 2016, then the over 3.3 million depositors who have not received their locked-up funds can do worse to the New Patriotic Party government.

According to the group, the majority of CASLOC members still have their cash locked up several months after the financial sector clean-up exercise.

Ezekiel Annor Akagbo, Secretary to the group, told Class News' Maxwell Attah that the government's ‘namby-pamby’ approach is not helping matters.

According to him, the negative effects of the financial sector clean-up have wiped out almost all the prospects and achievements of the NPP government.

The group said its survey indicates that voter apathy is crippling into its members and their dependents because of their inability to access their locked-up funds.

“Over half of us can be said to have had a very strong affinity with the ruling government. This affinity can be seen to be dwindling as a result of the untold hardships being experienced by us as a result of the financial sector clean-up exercise”, he bemoaned.

He, therefore, appealed to the government to expedite action on the payments of locked-up cash early enough to help restore the confidence of its sympathisers.

At a press conference in Kumasi on Wednesday, 15 January 2020, CASLOC called on churches, cooperate bodies and organisations that have their funds locked-up with insolvent financial institutions, including savings and loans companies, finance houses and microfinance institutions, to engage the government through every possible means and avenue in retrieving locked-up funds.

They also implored directors and shareholders of the rural and community banks across the country, to come out boldly on the issue, adding: “Because our checks indicate that the majority of the rural and community banks in the country also have their funds locked up in these collapsed financial institutions."

The group called on the Council of State, Parliament, former Presidents, the National House of Chiefs, the National Peace Council, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, the Christian Council, the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council, the National Chief Imam and opinion leaders in the country, to add their voice to the issues pertaining to their locked-up funds in order to aid them retrieve their cash from the government as soon as possible.