The Convener of the Locked-Up Investment Holders Forum (LIFH), Dr. Adu Anane Antwi, has indicated that the demonstration delegation could not meet the Finance Minister to present its petition to the Ministry of Finance yesterday, 27th March 2024.
He revealed that prior to the demonstration on the 27th of March 2024, he had written to the Minister of Finance, on Friday, March 22nd, 2024, to inform him of the group’s decision to go on a demonstration, noting that he was surprised the group met the absence of the Minister when it got to the Ministry.
Furthermore, he indicated that the Minister could not arrange for any person to be present to receive the delegation, a situation he described as unfortunate.
He indicated that the group needs to have a discourse with the Minister of Finance to determine how the licenses of the investment firms involved will be revoked for the government to recover their locked-up investments.
“Bank of Ghana says they are trying to get Finance Ministry to support this revocation. They clearly know that the only thing to be done is to revoke the licenses of these institutions. But if they revoke the license, the payment must happen. You recall that a similar thing was done in 2017/2018”
Dr. Adu Anane Antwi
Moreover, Dr. Adu Antwi noted that the after-effect of the Banking Sector Clean-up exercise conducted by the government is still prevalent. He argued that the current lock-up of investment at the various investment firms resulted from the sector clean-up done years ago. “So we haven’t brought the clean-up exercise to a complete end” he added.
He clarified that the group expects the government to make funds available to pay all affected investors and also instruct the Bank of Ghana to revoke the licenses of the firms involved like it (the government) did in 2017/2018 with the Banking Sector.
Dr. Adu Antwi also disclosed that the Bank of Ghana has made it known to the group its readiness to revoke the licenses of these investment firms. He noted however that the Central Bank is waiting upon the government to ascertain that the government has the funds to pay all the customers when the licenses are revoked.
BoG To Revoke Licenses
He indicated that the Bank of Ghana’s decision aims to avoid a situation where licenses are revoked yet the customers are unpaid, which will lead to customers hogging the government constantly to pay them their money. “It’s better to get the money ready before the revocation takes place” he emphasized.
Moreover, he indicated that the Forum has advised the government to engage its development partners to help with the country’s financial crisis, stressing that the country is in a financial muddle and urgent action must be taken to resolve it.
“So that we can start on a better footing and tell ourselves that, yes, now our financial market has become solid. But once people’s monies are still locked up in that financial market, the IMF’s talks about financial stability will just be a misnomer. If they want stability in the financial market they should tell the development partners to help us”.
Dr. Adu Anane Antwi
Dr. Adu Anane Antwi indicated that it is unfortunate the Forum could not meet the Minister of Finance and more disappointing is the fact that the delegation could not leave its proposal to be given to the Minister because there was no one to give it to.
He indicated that though the Bank of Ghana is doing its best to help the affected customers the Forum will not relent in its efforts to hold a discussion with the Minister of Finance to find a solution to its problems.
Conclusively, he noted that pensioners whose monies are locked up with these investment firms are finding it difficult to go about their daily lives as some do not have money to buy even medicines for themselves among other issues.
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