Private legal practitioner and a member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Abraham Amaliba, has said the decision by the government to pay all customers of the collapsed Microfinance Companies their deposits is a result of the NDC’s promise to pay depositors should the party be elected in the December polls.
Mr Amalbia said the government was unwilling to address the needs and concerns of the customers regarding the matter until after the NDC’s flagbearer, John Mahama promised to pay them.
To that end, he said, the customers and Ghanaians in general should thank Mr Mahama for the latest twist.
The government has said in line with its commitment to protect depositors funds and to shore up public confidence in the financial system, it has made available to the Receiver of the failed Micro Finance Companies as well as the Official Liquidator of the Micro Credit Companies in official liquidation a combination of cash and commercial paper totalling approximately GH¢6.49billion to fully settle the valid depositor claims.
This was contained in a press statement released on Tuesday, September 15.
“As the Receiver/Official Liquidator brings the processing and payment of valid depositor claims to closure, a total amount of approx GHS6.07billion has been paid to some depositors of these resolved companies, leaving an amount of approx. GHS402million to be paid to the remaining depositors, to fully settle all valid depositor claims in the resolution process. It should be noted that these claims include validated claims previously assessed by the Receiver/Official Liquidator as Late Submission claims owing to the fact that they were submitted after the extended deadline for the submission of depositor claims in the resolution process.
“Of the total amount of approximately GHS6.49billion required to fully settle all valid depositor claims in the resolution process, about GHS3.56billion of these claims in value representing approx 55% of total claims payable are being settled with Government of Ghana backed Non-Interest bearing Commercial Paper (“Bond”), with the remaining approx. 45% in value of claims payable, worth approx. GHS2.93billion being settled with Cash.
“The Depositor Payment Scheme set up by the Receiver/Official Liquidator to administer and fully settle all valid depositor claims in the resolution process has largely been successful; however an area of concern for most of the affected depositors is with the features of the Commercial Paper used to partially settle the indebtedness of these resolved companies to those depositors whose claims were not fully extinguished by the payment of cash to them. These depositors have indicated that the features of the Bond, being non-interest bearing and with a tenor of five years do not make the Bond commercially attractive, thus creating a significant loss in value of their claims to them.
“Sensitive to these concerns and in order to provide additional liquidity to the financial sector, Government has made available to the Receiver/Official Liquidator additional cash amounting to approx.GHS3.56billion, equivalent to the total value of the Bond component of funding required to fully satisfy the indebtedness of the resolved entities to their body depositors. It is the expectation that this additional cash of approx. GHS3.56billion will replace the Commercial Paper which has been issued by Government in favour of affected depositors of these companies in resolution,” the statement said.
But Mr Amaliba told Johnnie Hughes on TV 3’s New Day, Wednesday September 16 that “Today the customers that are going to be paid their moneys should know that it is as a result of God-fearing John Mahama that they are going to be paid.”
He added “ Today, what they (NPP) are doing is to borrow our (NDC) ideas, the people know that these are original ideas of the NDC and they will now look at the two political parties and say that four years you couldn’t do this and then all of a sudden you want to do it.
“The people who are going to receive their moneys today know that it was a certain John Mahama who advocated for these moneys to be paid,” he added.
Reacting to these comments on the same show, Deputy Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kamal-Deen Abdulai, said the decision to pay all the customers is an indication of a listening president who cares about the needs of his people.
“If you have a president who is a listening president who doesn’t assume the posture of a dead goat, that president listens to the people who indeed he is ruling.
“Nana Akufo-Addo will never on earth not listen to the people of Ghana that is why he refers to us as Fellow Ghanaians,” he said.
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana