The receiver for 347 collapsed Microfinance companies and 23 Savings and Loans and Finance House Companies has given modalities for paying in full, all the locked -up funds of the customers of the defunct institutions. This is in line with a statement issued by Eric Nana Nipah a copy of which has been indicated below:
“Notice of full payments to depositors of resolved Microfinance, Microcredit and Savings and Loans and Finance House Companies whose claims have been validated in the resolution process,” the statement added.
In accordance with Section 123 of Act 930 Bank of Ghana (BoG) has appointed Eric Nana Nipah, a Director of PricewaterhouseCoopers (Ghana) Limited (PwC) as Receiver for the purposes of winding down the affairs of 347 Micro Finance companies as well as 23 Savings and Loans and Finance House companies whose licenses were revoked on 31 May 2019 and 16 August 2019 respectively.
The main duties of the Receiver are
- To recover and maximise asset realisations for the benefit of Creditors including mainly Depositors and
- Distribute realisations in accordance with the relevant provisions of Act 930, to satisfy the indebtedness of these institutions to their body of Creditors, to the extent possible.
As you may be aware, the asset recovery phase of the receiverships is underway but given the slow pace of realisations arising out of the poor quality of most of the assets of these resolved institutions, the Receiver is compelled to undertake a detailed assets tracing and forensics exercise in collaboration with the Law Enforcement agencies, and the successful outcome of this exercise is likely to take some time to achieve. Pursuing this recovery route therefore, the indebtedness of these resolved institutions to their body of creditors, including depositors are not likely to be met any time soon.
In line with Government’s commitment to protect depositors’ funds and to shore up public confidence in the financial system, Government has made available to the Receiver of the above resolved companies a combination of cash and bonds totalling approximately GHS5bn to fully settle outstanding depositor claims of these resolved institutions as well as of the 39 Micro Credit institutions in official liquidation.
Modalities for the payment of the outstanding depositor obligations effective Monday 24 February 2020 are as follows:
Based on information to be provided by the Receiver on depositors due for payment, CBG will open new accounts for all depositors whose claim(s) have been validated and agreed in the receiverships of the above resolved companies
- SMS messaging from the Receiver to depositors due for payment, setting out the Account number and Cash amount due depositor
- Accessing funds at any CBG branch by the depositor showing any of these valid Identity card ie Drivers License, Voters Identity Card, Passport, to confirm his or her identity.
A combination of cash and bonds will be used to settle depositor claims. It is expected that with the above funding arrangement comprising part cash and bonds, about 97.6% of individual claimants in number will be fully settled in cash. Other categories of depositors including corporates will be fully settled through a combination of cash and bonds.
Please note that the Receiver will fully settle outstanding depositor claims once these claims have been validated and agreed in the resolution process. Please note further that the Receiver continues to validate depositor claims not yet validated and agreed in the receiverships and will communicate the status of depositor claims submitted within the claim deadline period, as and when they have been validated and agreed in the receiverships of the above resolved companies.
Stakeholders may direct all concerns on the above receiverships to:
The Receiver,
Eric Nana Nipah,
25 B Manet Towers
PMB CT42, Cantonments
Accra, Ghana
Tel: +233 (0) 242 439 441/
+233(0) 20 4904250/ 0550000966
SGD
ERIC NANA NIPAH