Rev Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh, the Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has disclosed that 4 out the 47 fund management firms that had claims filed against them following the 2017 financial sector cleanup still have pending liquidation orders.

According to Reverend Ogbarmey Tetteh, whereas 43 of the 47 firms have been granted liquidation orders thus allowing for contributors to be refunded, 4 still have pending liquidation orders.

In the 2017 financial sector cleanup, 50 fund management firms had their licenses revoked, out of which 47 of them had had claims filed against them.

Reverend Ogbarmey explained that this means that contributors who are yet to receive payment, as well as those who were only partially refunded most likely belong to these 4 fund management firms still waiting for their liquidation grant.

SEC’s Engagement with Government

Mr Ogbarmey stated that the ongoing bailout scheme was as a result of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s engagement with the government concerning the idea.

“Towards the end of 2020, we engaged the government about the concept or the idea of throwing in a partial bailout and government agreed, so the partial bailout was an amount up to GH₵50,000. So, if you had a claim more than ₵50,000 you should have received your partial bailout but then you’d still have money.”
Rev Daniel Ogbarmey

The Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission moreover averred that contributors who had received partial payment will only receive the remainder of their funds after their fund management firm receives the liquidation order.

Reverend Ogbarmey Tetteh however, indicated that there are two other classes of people who may have not yet received any funds. These, he said “included people contesting their validated claims and those who had refused to assent to the government’s agreement for a bailout.”

Concerning those contesting their validated claims, he said, “There are also some people who are contesting or not happy with the validated claims that they were given. So, when it happens that way there’s room for you to engage the agent who did the validation of the claims so that there can be some manual validation.”

Meanwhile, for those that refused to assent to the government’s agreement, he stated that they may have to receive their funds from the liquidator.

“To participate in the government bailout programme, you must also agree that you are assigning your right to the government. So, there are people who haven’t because it is voluntary, those people will have to go to their liquidator.”
Rev Daniel Ogbarmey

Rev Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh noted that the government has so far disbursed almost 3 billion cedis to investors of some liquidated fund management firms. He moreover, indicated that following the closures, validated claims made by persons who had invested in the now-defunct firms amounted to 8.5 billion cedis.

The Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission noted that his outfit is committed to dealing with all validated claims.

“In terms of redemptions; so people who have taken money out, like I said some would have left the money in, but those who have taken the money out, total redemptions as at 28th of January this year, 2022, total redemptions from tier one is 1.54billion. That is the amount that has been taken out from tier one.”
Rev Daniel Ogbarmey

It can be recalled that in 2017, the government of Ghana with the Bank of Ghana to clean the financial sector. They ended up collapsing about 9 different banks, 23 different Savings and Loans companies, 386 different Microfinance companies, and 53 fund management institutions in the country.