The Receiver for some microfinance and savings and loans institutions has indicated that, some depositors are yet to receive their payment due to delays in submission of claims.
Spokesperson for the Receiver, Philomena Kuzoe said there has been progressive work done on validation of claims and as such, they will be paid as soon as validation of their claim is done.
“I want to explain that, before the deadline for submission of claims, we had received about 370,000 claims approximately and so for those claims, they met the deadline of 18th October, 2019…. after the deadline we had received about a 120,000 claims thereabout”.
“The claims that came after the deadline, of course you have to secure funding for that to pay them, which I think they have. And then we need also to validate their claims, which we’ve done most of them, I think we are more than halfway through with their validation.
Philomena Kuzoe
“And so when we finish clearing this 2 percent, we will start with those ones”.
There have been questions about the number of depositors that have been paid by the receiver with the Minority Leader in Parliament, Haruna Iddrisu requesting an audit of payments made to depositors whose funds got locked up in the financial sector crisis.
His comment was in response to the Deputy Finance Minister, Charles Adu Boahen’s statement that, 96 percent of depositors’ locked-up funds during the banking sector clean-up have been paid in full.
Philomena Kuzoe, however indicated that, “When we talk about the percentages that we’ve paid, we’ve paid 98 percent of those claims, those who met the deadline”.
Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of the Ghana Association of Savings and Loans Companies, Mr. Tweneboah Koduah Boakye, reacting to the Spokesperson’s comment intimated that, after an engagement with the receiver, they have processed validated claims within the timeline given.
“And just as the spokesperson mentioned that the claims that were submitted before the timeline given or within the timeline given, they said that they had processed all those and have transferred to CBG for payment”.
One of the challenges he noted was that, there are some clients who have submitted claims but are yet to receive their monies.
“A little investigation we have done independently actually suggests that, yes it’s possible the Receiver has sent those that they have validated for payment to CBG. But clients have not received the text message and the account numbers which actually shows that they are supposed to receive or go for their money”.
Tweneboah Koduah
“Another thing that also supports our claim is that, clients are supposed to receive the cash component, then followed by the bond component. We’ve realized that some clients have received text messages for bond component and they have not received any cash. And the process is that, you cannot be given bond if the cash component has not been received, which actually tells us that, there may be some systemic challenges with CBG and also with the receivers”.
Mr. Tweneboah Koduah advised the receiver along with CBG to actively work on the challenges within the system.
“Because if clients have not received text messages or their account numbers, then the client may see it as a bit of a challenge”.