All depositors whose funds have been locked as a result of the banking sector cleanup will be paid in cash upon the return of a John Mahama-led administration, National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has said.

Speaking at the party’s 4th edition of a weekly press briefing on Monday June 22, 2020, Sammy Gyamfi said; “His Excellency John Dramani Mahama is committed to fixing the mess that has been created by the mild administration of President Akufo-Addo in all sectors of the nation and in all facets of our lives. He is committed to delivering transformational leadership needed to create prosperity and wealth for all.”

“As he has announced through his digital conversations with the nation in the last few months, former President Mahama when elected shall pay all customers of the collapsed financial institutions whose monies are locked up in full and restore indigenous Ghanaian participation in the financial sector,” Mr Gyamfi added.

The Communications Officer said the former President John Mahama believes he owes all depositors of the collapsed banks and financial institutions the dignity of paying their locked-up funds within the shortest time possible when his party returns to power.

As part of its efforts to restore confidence in the banking and specialized deposit-taking sectors, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) embarked on a clean-up exercise in August 2017 to resolve insolvent financial institutions whose continued existence posed risks to the interest of depositors.

The clean up saw the revocation of licenses of 9 universal banks, 347 microfinance companies, 39 microcredit companies or money lenders, 15 savings and loans companies, 8 finance house companies, and two non-bank financial institutions.

The move by the central bank was a comprehensive assessment of the savings and loans and finance house sub-sectors carried out by the BoG in the last few years after it identified serious breaches.