The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has said that 461,339 depositors of Savings and Loans as well as microfinance firms have so far been paid their locked-up funds, following the revocation of licenses of some S & Ls and MFIs.

At the same time, he reiterated that all customers of the nine defunct banks whose licenses were revoked by the Bank of Ghana have also been paid.

“As we sit here today, all the banks depositors have been paid. And then you have the savings and loans and microfinance institutions, the depositors’ there--savings and loans were 300,089 depositors that have made reclaims-- that is about 23 savings and loans. So far we have paid 296,344”, he told Philip Osei Bonsu of Asempa FM.

Furthermore, Dr. Bawumia said “so the savings and loans, it’s only 3,745 that have not been paid because it is due to related and third party transactions which is being investigated. But all others have been paid.”

“If you look at microfinance, there were claims of 165,168 and the receiver has paid 164,995. So in total, the claims for the savings and loans and microfinance which is 465,257 separate claims and then we’ve paid 461,339. So 99.2 percent have been paid”, he emphasized.

The Vice President once again chastised the previous managers of the Central Bank saying they supervised a poorly structured microfinance sector.

“As I said the microfinance sector was one of the most poorly set up sectors. They [microfinance institutions] had made all sort of investments that were not tenable; savings and loans too.  It was difficult essentially doing a rescue of all these struggling institutions”, he added.

Reasons behind revocation of licenses of S&Ls

The Bank of Ghana in August last year revoked the licences of 23 insolvent savings and loans companies and finance house companies.

The Central Bank in a statement attributed the move as necessary because the S&Ls have become insolvent even after a reasonable period within which the regulators has engaged with them in the hope that they would be recapitalized by their shareholders to return them to solvency.

They include GN Savings and Loans Ltd, Ideal Finance Ltd, Unicredit Savings and Loans Ltd, Global Access Savings and Loans Company Ltd, Accent Financial Services Ltd, Midland Savings and Loans Company Ltd, First Allied Savings and Loans Co. Ltd.

Reasons behind revocation of licenses of MFIs

Earlier in May 2019, the BoG had revoked the licenses of 347 insolvent microfinance companies.

The licences of 192 of them were revoked in addition to that of another 155 that have ceased operations.