Some customers of the defunct local banks in the Upper East Region who had their monies locked-up are being paid at two branches of the Consolidated Bank Ghana in the Bolgatanga Municipality.

The customers had their monies locked-up as a result of the collapse of some indigenous banks and financial institutions by the Bank of Ghana, in a clean-up exercise of the financial sector, two years ago.

Some of the customers who spoke to the Ghana News Agency in Bolgatanga said they received text messages from the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Receiver, on Wednesday, July 29th requesting them to visit any Consolidated Bank Ghana branch for payment of their validated claims.

The majority of the beneficiaries who had their monies locked-up in the defunct First Allied Savings and Loans said the text messages provided an account number to each customer for payment of their monies.

The payment which commenced on Monday, August 3, halted on Tuesday which was a public holiday but continued simultaneously on the working days at the two Consolidated Bank branches in the Upper East Regional capital, Bolgatanga.
Mr Emmanuel Adongo, a businessman resident at Zaare, a suburb of Bolgatanga, said he heaved a sigh of relief after receiving the total amount of his money that got locked-up.

“For close to two years, my business grounded to a halt because of the money which I invested in the bank and it got locked-up. I became traumatized because there was no hope that I could get the money back”.

A trader at the Bolgatanga New Market, Madam Mabel Aberinga who could not hide her joy, thanked the government for the intervention.

“I had a savings account with the First Savings and Loans, so, all my savings were kept there. I least expected the bank will collapse. The situation affected my trading but with this money in my hand now, things will come back to normal”, she said.

It is not clear if all the customers, whom the Receiver validated, received the total sum of their lock-up funds but the few that spoke to the GNA said they had received all of their monies that got locked-up.

Even though Managers of the Consolidated Bank Ghana, Bolgatanga branches, refused to speak to the media, checks by GNA revealed that the two banks each paid up to 100 customers in a day.

Some of the customers said they retained the account numbers opened for them by the Receiver and had part of their money saved at the Consolidated Bank, Ghana.