Former workers of the defunct UT Bank and Capital Bank have once again appealed to President Akufo-Addo to help facilitate the payment of their severance packages a year after the collapse of their banks.
The ex-workers, in a statement issued yesterday and jointly signed by Phillip Yawson, Raymond Addai Danquah, Edem Adimado and Steven Aning, said: “While we believe that the overall effect of the Bank of Ghana’s action is to sanitize the banking industry, we believe that the innocent staff have just been thrown away with the bath water to wallow in poverty and distress and to suffer psychologically, physically and socially.”
“One year down the line, once again, we can only appeal to the President of the Republic of Ghana, His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo; Vice President of Ghana, His Excellency Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia; the Honourable Minister of Finance; Ken Ofori-Atta; Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison; Joint Receivers and other relevant stakeholders to look in our direction and intervene to ensure that our entitlements are paid to us to help us put our lives together.”
According to them, they were still struggling to survive.
“Our exit pay, which was negotiated on our behalf by UNICOF and agreed with the Joint Receivers on 15th January, 2018, has still not been paid to help us stay on our feet. Some of us who also believed that our working experience, skills and qualifications would help us return to the job market have been hit by a rude awakening. Not only have job opportunities been difficult to come by, we have been hanged with the albatross of collapsing our respective banks. The stigma seems to accompany us everywhere when we knew practically nothing.”
On 14th August, 2017, staff of Capital Bank and UT Bank were hit with devastating news that turned their lives upside down.
At exactly, 6:00am on that fateful day, it was announced that in line with Section 123 of the Banks and Specialized Deposit-Taking Institutions (SDIs) Law 2016 (Act 930), their banks had been liquidated and that the Bank of Ghana had appointed Joint Receivers to execute a Purchase and Assumption agreement.
On 20th May, 2018, the former staff said they submitted a petition to President Akufo-Addo, but were yet to receive even an acknowledgement of the receipt of the petition.
“We pray and hope the petition will be given the needed attention. Who stands with us? Who speaks for us? Who feels our pain and anguish?” they quizzed.
“Life has been tougher than many of us anticipated.
“We are struggling to feed, pay medical bills, pay rent, pay school fees for our children and also cater for our other dependents. We are basically struggling to survive. Unfortunately, some have lost their lives within this torrid period, leaving behind children and other dependents.”
By Samuel Boadi