More than 96 per cent of depositors who had their monies locked-up from the banking sector clean-up “have been paid in full,” a Deputy Finance Minister says.

Charles Adu Boahen said 20 per cent of the monies were paid in cash while 80 per cent was paid in bonds.

“The bonds were structured to pay out over four years,” he told MP’s during the debate on the Mid-year Budget Review in Parliament Tuesday.

According to Mr Boahen, the brouhaha being made about non-payment of the monies is by the four per cent whose monies are still locked-up.

He said government has set aside ¢3.1 billion for the payments which would be done once the courts grant the receiver the right to liquidate the assets of the defunct financial institutions.

NDC promises to pay locked-up cash

Mr Boahen’s comments come less than 24 hours after former president John Mahama who is seeking a return to power promised to pay the monies within a year if elected in December 2020.

He said the next National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration shall not put up any long-term payment plans that will further worsen the living conditions of the victims of the collapsed institutions.

Speaking at an event in the UPSA auditorium to outdoor his running mate to the country, he said, “My heart goes out to the many who have been affected by this Government’s unjustifiable collapse of Ghanaian-owned financial institutions.”

Banking sector clean-up

The Bank of Ghana revoked the licenses of 347 Microfinance Companies and that of 23 Savings and Loans and Finance House Companies in 2019, citing insolvency, mismanagement and fraud in some cases.

The exercise was part of the financial sector clean up by the central bank which also saw some eight banks losing their licenses between 2017 and 2019.

The government justified the cleansing exercise, arguing the banks would have, otherwise, collapsed, and with them, the deposits of more than a million clients.