Rev. Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh, SEC boss
OUT OF a total of 100,898 claims received against some 47 fund management companies (FMCs) valued at GH¢11.70 billion as at March 31, 2021, a total of 100,700 claims valued at GH¢8.314 billion have so far been validated, Rev. Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh, Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has noted.
This means that an estimated 99.8 per cent of the total claims filed have been validated with an almost 30 per cent found to be unwarranted.
Rev. Ogbarmey Tetteh, who disclosed this to the media last Friday in Accra, said claimants who disagreed with validated amounts were engaging the agent of the SEC for further examination.
He said as at the end of March this year, the total value of claims being considered for the third and current phase of the full bailout programme stands at GH¢637 million, from six (6) FMCs whose liquidation orders have been granted by the courts and gazetted. Out of these claims, GH¢556 million has been validated.
Under the first phase, GH¢1.1 billion of claims were validated as at October 2019 while in the second phase at end of November 2020, GH¢1.06 billion of claims were validated accordingly out of GH¢1.8 billion considered.
The Director General also pointed out that out of the total claimants who have signed up for the full bailout programme on the implementation of the bailout programme for clients of the defunct FMCs, a total of GH¢768,264,539.80 has been paid as at March 31, 2021.
“This represents a total of 83 per cent of total claimants paid out of total sign-ups done and 78 per cent of the total value paid of examined claims. The variance of outstanding payments is explained by some clients opting not to withdraw their funds.
“The number of claimants who have been fully settled under this programme amounts to a total of 6,916 clients as at March 31, this year,” he underlined.
Partial Bailout
He continued that a total of 64,685 claimants have signed up for the programme by executing the assignment and subscription agreement as at March 31, out of a total of 89,233 claimants. This represents 72 per cent of total claimants signed up under the partial bailout programme.
Value Of Claimants
The total value of the claimants who have signed up for the partial bailout as at March 31, this year amounted to GH¢3.5 billion. The corresponding bailout amount for these sign-ups is GH¢1.196 billion.
Actual payments made under the partial bailout programme as at March 31, 2021 amounts to GH¢995 million to 52,264 claimants. This represents 81 per cent of total claimants and 83 per cent of the total corresponding partial bailout value. The number of clients who have been fully settled under this programme amounts to a total of 42,945 claimants as at March 31, 2021.
Currently, there are less than a quarter of the liquidations petitions outstanding and the next update is expected to be provided at the end of the second quarter.
“The roll-out of the full and partial bailout packages has been quite successful. The partial bailout authorised by the government has resulted in about 66 per cent of claimants (in all categories) being fully paid. For claimants with validated claims in excess of the GH¢50,000 threshold, Please be assured that the full bailout package would be triggered when the liquidation orders are granted. There is thus no need to resort to any middlemen or facilitators to secure payout of the bailout.
“The SEC wishes to assure all affected clients that government has made provision to cover all validated claims with the recent additional allocation in the 2021 national budget statement to support the clean-up exercise in the asset management industry. There is hence no need for any affected client to panic because of the protracted court liquidation process.
“All affected customers who are yet to receive a claim ID to sign onto the partial bailout programme should contact SEC’s agent PwC…,” Rev. Ogbarmey Tetteh noted.
He added, “SEC wishes to express its appreciation to government for the provision of GH¢5.5 billion in the 2021 national budget statement which was recently approved by Parliament to complete the asset management industry clean-up exercise. All affected clients have been advised to patiently follow through with all relevant processes to redeem their claims and rely only on information provided by the SEC and the Official Liquidator.”
Update On Liquidation Orders
The courts have granted 37 liquidation orders to the Official Liquidator (Registrar General) as at the March 31, this year, out of 47 fund management companies with claims from investors after the revocation. Virtual creditor and class meetings have been held by the Official Liquidator for clients of 34 of these companies.
Companies with liquidation orders yet to have creditors and class meetings include Firstbanc Financial Services, Procap Finance Company and Strategic Hedge Capital Limited.
The remaining 10 companies that have their liquidation petitions currently pending before the high court for hearing include Apex Capital Partners Ltd, Beige Capital Asset Management Ltd, Blackshield Capital Management (formerly Gold Coast Fund Management Ltd), Dowjays Investment Ltd, Frontline Capital Advisors Ltd, Kron Capital Ltd, Liberty Asset Management Ltd, Omega Capital Ltd, Universal Capital Mgt Ltd and Wealth Vision Financial Services Ltd.
BY Samuel Boadi