Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia says the Ministry of Finance is making arrangements to reimburse clients of companies liquidated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) during the financial sector clean-up exercise.
The move, according to Dr. Bawumia, is aimed at bringing relief to affected investors while promoting transparency and accountability within the financial market.
Addressing professional bodies in Kumasi as part of his tour to the Ashanti Region, Dr. Bawumia emphasized the government’s unwavering dedication to ensuring investor protection.
“It looks like the Minister of Finance is looking forward to making some payment to customers of the liquidated companies,” he stressed.
He indicated that several engagements have been made with affected customers to compensate them.
“When it comes to Gold Coast Securities and others, it is something on our agenda and I believe that the Ministry of Finance will look at it. We have engaged affected customers and we look forward to the payments”.
Dr. Bawumia said although the government is not responsible for making such payments, it will initiate payment out of sympathy to the unfortunate investors affected by the clean-up.
“Technically, government is not responsible but out of empathy and sympathy for the people who invested in some of these institutions, the minister will make some of these payments”.
About the banking sector clean-up
The government in 2017 undertook the banking sector clean-up under the supervision of the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.
The exercise saw a reduction in the number of banks from 34 to 23, whilst 347 microfinance institutions, 15 savings and loans and eight finance houses had their licences revoked.
A number of the institutions that had the licences revoked were found to have varying degrees of corporate governance lapses.
The total estimated cost of the state’s fiscal intervention, excluding interest payments, from 2017 to 2019 was pegged at GH¢16.4 billion.
The government in 2020 claimed that it spent about GH¢21 billion on the banking sector clean-up exercise.
Some of the financial institutions that disagreed with the revocation sued the government and the cases are still pending in court.
