BoG Moves to Complete Revocation of Microfinance Firms

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has appointed Eric Nana Nipah, a Director of PricewaterhouseCoopers (Ghana), as Receiver to wind up the operations of the 386 microfinance firms whose licences were revoked on Friday.

Appointed in accordance with Section 123(2) of Act 930, he is to recover and maximise asset realisations for Creditors, mainly depositors and distribute same in accordance with the relevant provisions of Act 930, to satisfy the indebtedness of the firms to their Creditors, to the extent possible.

A statement issued and signed by Mr Nipah, with approval from the Central Bank on Saturday, said he had started the process of taking control over the affected microfinance companies.

It said an assessment of the state of affairs of the institutions would be completed within the next 10 days, to ascertain the types and values of assets and liabilities of the firms as of the commencement of receivership.

While at it, it said all creditors including depositors would be requested to submit their completed Proof of Debt (PoD) forms with supporting documentation to the Receiver for validation and agreement on claims.

It estimated that the validation and agreement process would take another 30 days from the date of the deadline for the submission of Creditor claims to be completed.

During the period, the statement said validated and accepted depositor claims which had been validated would be paid concurrently at designated Consolidated Bank of Ghana Ltd (CBG) branches, to the extent possible.

In order for the Receiver to determine the indebtedness as well as the order of ranking of these Creditors for dividend distribution the statement said a Creditor Administration process would be put in place.

The features it said included the submission of PoD forms by Creditors in addition to relevant documentation supporting their claims as well as amounts owed to them.

During the validating and agreeing of claims, it said the Receiver would independently verify and reconcile the claims submitted by Creditors to the records of the affected microfinance companies, to determine the validity and quantum of claim made by the Creditor.

On the payments, the statement said with regard to the depositors of the affected microfinance companies, the Receiver would make payments to this class of Creditors using funds provided by Government for this purpose.

For the class of other Creditors, excluding depositors, it said depending on the quantum and timing of asset realisations in the receivership of the affected microfinance companies, the Receiver will declare and pay dividends to this class of Creditors in accordance with the order of ranking of Creditors provided in the relevant sections of Act 930.

According to the statement "Stakeholders may direct all concerns on the receivership of their affected microfinance companies to The Receiver, Eric Nana Nipah".

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