Eric Nana Nipah, the Receiver of some collapsed microfinance, finance houses, and savings and loans companies has disclosed he is unable to undertake a thorough asset tracing of some thirty five (35) resolved companies.
According to him, this will enable him validate and settle claims of depositors under the Depositor Payment Scheme.
In effect, he is currently working with the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) to track and retrieve the manual and electronic books and records of these companies.
In a statement sighted by Vaultz News, the Receiver explained that the 35 resolved companies have depositor claims worth approximately GHC252 million.
“At the commencement of the resolution process, there were 157 non-operational companies whose books and records we were not able to locate and secure. Based on the collaborative arrangement we have with the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) which includes assets tracing and investigations, over time, we have been able to retrieve books and records from 131 resolved entities which were not operational at the commencement of the resolution of these companies, thereby making it possible for us to be able to validate creditor claims on these institutions.
“Currently, there are 35 resolved companies with depositor claims worth approximately GHS252 million which have no books or records available to us, to enable us to validate and settle these claims under the Depositor Payment Scheme. We are working with EOCO to locate and retrieve these companies’ records in order to be able to validate and settle depositor claims made on these companies”.
As such, with “the 35 resolved companies the Receiver is yet to obtain books and records on, to enable the validation of creditor claims including depositor claims to be undertaken in the resolution exercise”.
The Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr. Ernest Addison, had earlier indicated that the Receiver of the collapsed banks has settled all payments due depositors.
He said 95 per cent of the customers of savings and loans companies, microfinance institutions and finance houses had also been paid their deposits and investments.
Dr. Addison, briefing the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, at the BoG on a number of issues in the financial sector, especially the banking crisis, said there was just about five per cent of depositors of the non-bank financial institutions which had large amounts of money to be settled that were swapped with bonds which were to be retired over five years.
He also indicated that there were a few delays regarding depositors of the GN Bank/GN Savings and Loans and First Allied Savings and Loans which were cleared last three weeks.
The governor added that the government had provided a bond worth GH¢1.7 billion, out of which GH¢700 million had been monetized, with which the Receiver was also working at clearing the last people that were left in this segment.
