Print money to pay depositors of collapsed financial institutions – Kwame Pianim

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Renowned Economist, Kwame Pianim, has suggested that the government considers approving the printing of money by the Bank of Ghana to settle claims of depositors who have been affected by the financial sector clean up.

In his view, this should be necessary as the depositors are victims of circumstances as a result of weak supervision of the financial sector.

Mr. Pianim made the remark in an interview with Citi News on his assessment of how the government has dealt with the financial sector issues thus far.

“My suggestion was to have let the Bank of Ghana find a means to pay the affected customers even if it involved printing of money…We are making it difficult for the NPP to win this election.”

Mr. Pianim has also urged the government to expedite the processes to prosecute persons who have been found culpable in the financial sector crisis.

He is convinced that this will make depositors affected by the development have confidence in the sector.

“How long has it taken us to put some of these people on trial? The government has spent a lot of taxpayers’ money in order to pay for some of these difficulties,” he noted.

The Bank of Ghana has between 2017 and 2019, revoked the licenses of nine indigenous banks for violating various regulations guiding their operations.

In addition, the licenses of over four hundred other financial institutions comprising Micro-finance, Savings and Loans as well as Fund Management companies, have been revoked to bring sanity into the financial sector.

This has affected about 4.6 million depositors whose monies could have been lost completely had the regulators not taken the action.

Mr. Pianim further intimated that the swift trial will ease the burden facing some affected depositors in terms of their anxiety over whether or not they will be able to lay claim to locked up funds.

“What we should have done so that in the Ghanaian minds, the people who have stolen people’s Fixed Deposits, were taken to trial to let people know that the issues are connected. This is because we had some pensioners’ funds put on deposits with some of these so-called distress banks. They are now being asked to go to the Receivers to collect the monies.”

Mr. Pianim has however advocated for the setting up of Special Asset Recovery Trusts to help with the sale of assets of individuals and institutions behind the recent financial sector crisis.

According to him, such an arrangement will aid with the speedy recovery of funds for onward disbursement to disgruntled customers of the affected institutions.

Commenting on the need to further protect the Ghanaian from possible future failings in the financial sector, Kwame Pianim said more needs to be done regularly to update citizens on the true state of financial institutions in the country.

Before the end of 2019, President Akufo-Addo granted an approval for some 15.6 billion cedis to be used to support persons who have been affected by the financial sector crisis

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