The receiver of the collapsed microfinance companies, savings and loans, and finance houses, has assured that all affected depositors will receive their locked up investments by end of March this year, after payment processes started on Monday, February 24, 2020.
The deadline follows a promise by President Akufo-Addo during the State of the Nation Address delivered last week, where he revealed that an amount of GH¢5 billion has been earmarked to reimburse all customers of the defunct companies from Monday, February 24, 2020.
In an interview with Citi BusinessNews, spokesperson for the Receiver, Philomena Kuzoe, said since February 24, about 800 people have been notified to retrieve their locked-up cash amounting to GH¢200 million from Consolidated Bank Ghana (CBG).
“So yesterday [Monday], we paid the social institutions made up of the churches, hospitals, schools, welfare associations who have their claims with these defunct microfinance and savings and loans institutions. We are expecting to finish by the end of March.” “By the time we finish with this exercise, which involves about 360,000 depositors, we will only be left with about 8,000 who we will be doing cash and bonds,” she added.
Payments of locked deposits
The customers of the 347 microfinance companies, 23 savings and loans and finance houses, as well as 39 micro-credit institutions with outstanding obligations, are expected to be paid in either cash or bonds.
According to a release issued by the Consolidated Bank, Ghana, the bank has chosen to payout customers’ funds, and will open new accounts for affected customers whose claims have been validated and accepted for payment. It added that the GH¢5 billion the government has earmarked to settle all outstanding payments in full is a combination of cash and bonds.
The bank adds that customers whose locked-up funds exceed the GHS20,000 cap will have another investment account created on their behalf where they will be paid using the bond which will mature later. The Bank adds that the affected customers are to wait for an SMS from the receiver confirming the acceptance of their claims before turning up at any CBG Branch for payments. The customers will be required to present any national identification card in order to access their funds.
Corporate and SME customers of defunct financial institutions are also not left out in this bout of fresh payments. The bank says such customers will receive a default savings account that will be opened and communicated to them by the Receiver. “They will then go through the normal KYC to open their current accounts where funds in the savings account will be transferred into,” the statement said.