Bank of Ghana Frustrates Depositors of Defunct Banks

By John Kelly

Information reaching Business Day indicates that many institutional investors, which have fixed deposits with UT, Capital, UniBank, and other defunct banks are being frustrated by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) in getting their monies back even though their investments have matured.

Business Day gathered that Apex Bank for instance had its GHC69 million locked up with Bank of Ghana. Other institutions that have their monies locked up include Atwima Rural Bank, Odotobri Rural Bank, Teachers Fund, and Otuasekan Rural Bank.

The rest include Ghana Exim Bank (GHC 80 million), Lower Pra Rural Bank, Manya Krobo Rural Bank, Phandy Susu Services, University of Education and University of Ghana.

"The Bank of Ghana (BoG), Business Day learnt, now chooses which cheque to honour and which cheque not to honour," a reliable source has stated, adding that, "this delay tactics employed by the Central Bank started closed to a year now.

He continued: "For instance, the BoG over the past has assured customers of the UT and Capital Banks that they would continue to have access to their funds, stressing that, it had approved a Purchase and Assumption transaction with GCB Bank Ltd that transferred all deposits and selected assets of UT Bank and Capital Bank to GCB Bank."

Contributing, an aggrieved customer of UniBank, told this paper that customers of the aforementioned banks are being frustrated by the bank of Ghana anytime, they present cheques for payment.

"If the amount involved is too huge, BoG will ask you to wait for some time," the source stated, adding that many institutional investors are still waiting for a year now.

He added: "We have presented a cheque for over eight million cedis at UniBank but KPMG told us that such huge amount cannot be paid and that we have to go and queue at the Bank of Ghana which we did for over three weeks now."

He continued: "GCB Bank has also stop paying individual and institutional investors who have done fixed deposits with UT and Capital Bank."

The situation, according to reliable sources, are forcing many individual and institutional investors to be cash-stressed.

Law suit against Bank of Ghana

Recently, a private citizen, Daniel Darko, has dragged BoG to court, seeking the Human Right Division of the Accra High Court to place an injunction on the Central Bank from closing down Savings and Loans in the country until it has fully completed resourcing the Consolidated Banks and sort out the depositors of the defunct banks.

The matter is currently pending at court. When an official of BoG was contacted, he promised that his outfit will investigate the issue.

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