General News of Saturday, 13 February 2016

Source: dailyguideafrica.com

DKM Customers Hit Streets In Bolga

Demonstrators against DKM on the streets of Bolga in the Upper East region. Demonstrators against DKM on the streets of Bolga in the Upper East region.

Hundreds of customers, whose monies have been locked at the DKM Microfinance Ltd, yesterday hit the streets of Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region, to demonstrate their displeasure and pain, before presenting a strongly-worded petition to President Mahama through the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council.

Their petition was received by the out-going Deputy Upper East Regional Minister, Daniel Syme, and they were assured that it would be forwarded to the president as soon as possible.

The “disappointed investors” want President Dramani Mahama to help them get their monies back, even if it will come without the investment interests the company promised them.

Surprisingly, the disappointed investors threatened to boycott the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections if the president fails to ensure that their monies are paid to them by the company.

The aggrieved customers believe that government has the power to direct the Bank of Ghana to halt the operations of DKM Microfinance Ltd but the government and the Bank of Ghana watched the company as it mobilized monies for five years.

Some of the placards they carried read, “WHO ARE BEHIND THIS DELIBERATE LOOTING?” “NO MONEY, NO VOTES,” “WE WANT OUR MONEY BACK,” and “THE SUFFERING IS TOO MUCH.”

Some of the disappointed investors who spoke to DAILY GUIDE said their marriages were suffering, while their children had been sacked from their schools due to non-payment of fees. Prior to the demonstration, there were news of people threatening to end their lives to end the humiliation from their creditors.

Spokesperson of the demonstrators, Charles Ayambire, said they suspected that the Bank of Ghana was not interested in helping them to get their monies back hence, their decision to petition the president.

Charles Ayambire claimed that when DKM Microfinance Ltd appeared in Bolgatanga as an accredited microfinance company with attractive advertisement and promises, hundreds of people from all walks of life, especially government workers, rushed to deposit their monies, expecting to get 50 percent interest on their investments. It became the order of the day in Bolgatanga, to the extent that some clients even took loans from their banks and deposited them at DKM Microfinance.

It was a big blow to many families across the Upper East Region when the news about moratorium on the operations of the company hit Bolgatanga in May 2015 and continues to be.