Accounts of depositors of defunct financial institutions “have already been credited”- CBG

The accounts of affected clients of defunct microfinance, savings and loans and other financial institutions have been credited with their monies.

Management of the Consolidated Bank Ghana (CBG) have disclosed that these accounts have been fully credited with the cash value of their estimated bonds.

The Managing Director of CBG, Daniel Wilson Addo, noted that depositors who desire to withdraw the monies may however have to visit any branch of the bank to have their documents validated.

“The total amount of money due to each customer is available. So if you’re due a GHS 100, that amount is credited to your account and is now available for you. Whether you come to the bank or not, it’s for you but if you want to withdraw it, you need to come to the bank in the first instance so that we can actually validate with a minimum check to make sure it is the same person. So we are not even doing a full KYC on you. But the accounts have already been credited. So the amount is in the account”.

Confirming proof of payment, a customer in an interview elatedly recounted the stress-free process of being paid back his money.

 “I was asked to show my identification card and after that, I was called by the teller, and the money was paid to me. It was GHS600 in total and my monies at First Allied has also been paid to me. I’m very delighted.”

The Receiver, Eric Nana Nipah on Tuesday, September 15, 2020, stated that depositors will gain access to their funds from Wednesday, September 16, 2020, as government has released some GHS3.56billion to pay off the remaining validated claims by the receiver.

The payment follows government’s resolution of the original commercial paper, popularly known as bonds by converting it into liquidities or cash for them.

According to the Receiver, the commencement of payment “brings the processing and payment of valid depositor claims to closure.

 “It is the expectation that this additional cash of approx. GHS3.56billion will replace the Commercial Paper which has been issued by Government in favor of affected depositors of these companies in resolution”.

Meanwhile, Mr. Nipah has revealed that there was a GHS4 billion shortfall in the asset base of defunct companies it hoped to recover.

He explained that contrarily, the firms cumulatively said they had an asset base of about GHS6 billion.

However, further probe, after securing the books and records of the companies as well as their assets, exposed the discrepancies.

“What I found was quite sorrowful; sorrowful in terms of the fact that although the balance sheets of these companies indicated that they had an asset base in excess of GHS6 billion, actually, based on my assessment, I do not think they are up to even GHS 2 billion. A lot of these assets that were purported to be there were actually not there. When we did our examination, we also noted that quite a number of them had been diverted.”