Otumfuo Osei Tutu ll, the Asantehene, has registered his displeasure over the issuance of excess licenses to micro-finance institutions by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) at the expense of the growth of such micro and small scale enterprises.

He said, much as the development was a blessing, in terms of its potential to offer financial support to micro and small enterprises, it had the unwholesome potential to cripple such micro and small enterprises through the mismanagement of their savings, or worse still, through the fraudulent misapplication and patent theft of customers’ savings.

The Asantehene raised this concern in an address delivered on his behalf by Nana Kwaku Amponsah Sarkodie ll, Sewuahene, at the 13th Ashanti Financial Services Excellence Award, organized by Top Brass Ghana, under the auspices of Manhyia Palace.

He noted that with the rapid and acute growth of the micro finance sector over the last five years, the BoG has granted financial licenses to well over 400 micro finance institutions.

Otumfuor noted that well publicised and recent happenings and developments in the micro-finance industry were the source of his concern and therefore urged the Bank of Ghana to institute effective and stringent supervision of the fledgling micro-finance sector to ensure efficiently and sanity in its operations to safeguard the investments of their customers.

He stated that the foreign exchange regime introduced by the BoG in 2014, initially raised hopes of success, but in the end proved ineffective and failed to achieve the expected objective of stabilizing the Cedi.