Isn’t it instructive that the black spots indeed crashes occasioned by poor banking supervision or even the lack of it in the history of the banking sector in Ghana occurred during the tenures of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Under the tenures of this party, the longest in post-independence Ghana, populist predispositions have been allowed to supersede the national interest, hence the prevalence of marginalization of best practices in the banking sector. As for the ensuing outcomes, they are not remembered with fondness we can vouch.
When the Pyram financial contagion afflicted the country, it was as though there was no regulatory authority in the country. Hell broke loose as poor Ghanaians attracted to the alluring features of the deposit-quadrupling Pyram venture poured unending deposits into the kitty of a group of smart young Ghanaians running the imported scam template.
By the end of the day, unsurprisingly, the enterprise went burst. What followed is now history, but unfortunately, no lessons were learnt because by and large officialdom was implicit and therefore feared the outcome of a public row. The necessary official reaction to obviate a future recurrence was not contemplated, let alone implemented.
What followed many years after the Pyram showing was enacted in the Brong Ahafo Region: that too under the nose of an NDC regime.
Expectedly, that too followed the path of its predecessor its glittering features notwithstanding. It was as though the banking supervision component of the terms of reference of the apex bank had been knocked off by an infection.
Enter a new government and it dawns upon it to clear the mess in the face of major social fallouts occasioned by suicides, disrupted families and others.
As for the state the effect of the payment of lost deposits is all too glaring to be ignored especially when considered alongside the settlement of NDC bequeathed debts. Unfortunately, those whose deliberate negligence led to the situation are quick to spew unnecessary garbage on the subject.
It never ceases to amaze us the hypocrisy being exhibited by persons whose fingers were burnt for doing business with unlicensed setups.
The foregone realities notwithstanding, the NDC perhaps for want of something to hold on to in their bid to seek the approval of Ghanaians for tenure, continues to show maximum hypocrisy with the subject.
Even the freshest of them all, the failed banks episode and their role in it has not informed a degree of discretion in their handling of the subject: they continue to glorify their incompetence with propaganda as they throw blinding dust into the eyes of their compatriots.
We will continue to imagine what could have befallen the banking sector and the economy had the apex bank not woken up from the slumber it did when its throttles were in the hands of a different set of Ghanaians.
We have come a long way from Pyram, DKM and the latest one which earned a lot of bad press and still do.
For a regime just close to half way into its first term, it is preposterous to expect it to clear the self-inflicted mess by the old order overnight and without taking drastic actions like what it did on the failed banks.