Employment and Labour Minister nominee, Ignatius Baffour Awuah says about 3,000 employees lost their jobs as a result of the banking sector clean-up.
He made the disclosure when he faced the Appointments Committee on Wednesday, February 17, 2021, for his vetting.
Member of Parliament for Tamale North, Alhassan Suhuyini had asked the Minister-designate to put a figure to the number of job losses the financial exercise carried out in 2017 had caused.
Mr. Baffour Awuah replied suggesting that data available to him indicates that only that number of baking sector staff became redundant afterwards.
“The number of jobs lost as a result of the banking sector collapse was around the vicinity of 3,000”, he stated.
However, Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu was shocked at the response thereby questioned the authenticity of the information provided.
He put it to the nominee that the 3,000 estimated figure is probably more than the actual.
The Minister-to-be insisted that although he did not immediately have the data readily available to him at the sitting, he said: “I remember I have made a public statement on that but if my memory serves me right, it was around 3,000”.
The financial sector cleanup commenced by the Akufo-Addo administration in August 2017 led to the collapse of nine universal banks, 347 microfinance companies, 39 microcredit companies or money lenders, 15 savings and loans companies, eight finance house companies, and two non-bank financial institutions.”
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also announced the revocation of licenses of 53 Fund Management Companies.
The total estimated cost of the state’s fiscal intervention, excluding interest payments, from 2017 to 2019 was pegged at GHS16.4 billion.
The collapse of the institutions left clients in distress as many of the customers have been struggling to retrieve their savings and investments.
A number of workers in the affected financial institutions were also laid off as a result.
Source: Ghana/otecfmghana.com
