Eric Nana Nipah
GOVERNMENT HAS released an amount of GH¢3.56 billion to replace the bond component of GH¢6.49 billion funding made available for the payment of claims to depositors affected by the collapse of 347 microfinance companies and some 23 savings and loans and finance house companies.
The decision was based on concerns raised by affected depositors over the features of the Commercial Paper used to partially settle the indebtedness of these resolved companies to those depositors whose claims were not fully extinguished by the payment of cash.
The Receiver and Official Liquidator of the resolved financial institutions, Eric Nana Nipah, disclosed the information in a statement released on Tuesday in Accra.
He indicated that so far an amount of GH¢6.07 billion had been paid to affected depositors of resolved companies while an additional amount of GH¢402 million is yet to be paid to remaining depositors with valid claims.
“It should be noted that these claims include validated claims previously assessed by the Receiver/Official Liquidator as Late Submission claims owing to the fact that they were submitted after the extended deadline for the submission of depositor claims in the resolution process,” he said.
He also explained that about GH¢3.56 billion of the claims in value representing approximately 55 per cent of total claims payable were settled with Government of Ghana (GoG) backed non-interest-bearing Commercial Paper bond while GH¢2.93 billion representing 45 per cent in value of claims payable had been settled with cash.
The GH¢3.56 billion is to address concerns associated with the use of bond to partially settle depositors whose claims were not fully extinguished by cash payment.
“These depositors have indicated that the features of the bond, being non-interest bearing and with tenure of five years do not make the bond commercially attractive, thus creating a significant loss in value of their claims to them,” he said.
Affected depositors, with effect from Wednesday, 16 September 2020, he said, were encouraged to contact any branch of Consolidated Bank Ghana Ltd (CBG) to access their newly created cash accounts which were originally designated as Commercial Paper (Bond) accounts at the bank.
By Issah Mohammed