Cost of financial sector clean-up to rise to GH₵34 billion

A report from Parliament indicates that the cost of the financial sector clean-up could rise to GH₵34 billion.

This comes after Parliament recommended that the government settles 61,000 customers of defunct Gold Coast Fund Management following their petition to the House.

The Chairman of the Special Committee set up to investigate the demands of these customers, Joe Ghartey, addressing the House noted that government must honour its promise to repay the investors.

“We urge government to do its part in terms of prosecuting the matter and following it in court so that the question of whether they should be liquidated or not will come to an end so that further payments can be made,” he said.

Following this recommendation, the government is expected to spend an amount of GH₵9 billion to settle these customers.

This adds up to the GH₵25 billion already spent on the clean-up exercise, according to former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta.

The Committee further recommended that insurance be included in all these financial decisions to ensure the cost of the collapse of these institutions does not become a burden on the government.

“We recognise the fact that this House passed the Ghana Deposit Protection Act 2016, and it was passed to protect depositors. We cannot continue at this rate where people set up financial institutions and then they collapse and the last resort is government.

“The government cannot continue being a guarantor between institutions and the people of Ghana. Therefore, one way to go around this is for us to insist that when you are making such investments you take insurance,” he noted.