While President Akufo-Addo and the Receiver of collapsed financial institutions, Eric Nana Nipa, have publicly claimed that they have almost completed paying depositors’ locked funds, Ezekiel Annor-Head of the Association of Affected Customers of Savings and Loans institutions, is disputing the claims.
According to Mr. Annor, many of the affected persons after submitting their claims were told during the validation processes that their names could not be found in the system. He revealed that according to the Bank of Ghana, about 3.3 million people were affected after the licences of financial institutions were revoked.
However, per the checks he instituted, only about 297,000 – which is less than 10% of the total number, have received their monies. What really accounts for this anomaly? We understand that both Mr. Nipa and the president made reference to the validated claims, so their analysis could be right with respect to the validated claims.
On the other hand, however, those whose monies were locked up as a result of the collapse of those financial institutions whose claims could not be validated will be counting their losses; hence, giving the impression that the payment process is almost complete will be challenged – and that is precisely what Mr. Annor is doing based on the information at his disposal.
Our problem is how to get the two positions on one page so as to give the public an accurate account of what has transpired. Mr. Annor says the validated claimants account for just 10% of the claimants, and we wonder what the plight of the remaining 90% will be if what Ezekiel Annor is saying is anything to go by.
As the nominal Head of the Association of Affected Customers of Savings and Loans institutions, he must be privy to a lot of information pertaining to the microfinance sector; that is why we put some weight to his concerns.
The two differing positions have to be reconciled for the lay public to get a better appreciation of the matter.
