Former President John Mahama
Former President John Mahama in 2016 openly admitted that the banking sector under his watch was crumbling due to poor supervision from the Bank of Ghana.
In his State of the Nation Address (SONA) in 2016, he told Members of Parliament (MPs) bluntly about how poor supervision was adversely affecting the survival of some microfinance companies.
An excerpt from his address reads “Mr Speaker, over the past five years, there has been a proliferation of microfinance companies. These companies come under the direct supervision of the Bank of Ghana.
“Unfortunately, lack of effective supervision has resulted in many cases in which microfinance companies licensed by Bank of Ghana have breached the rules and created supposed pyramid schemes that have eventually come crashing down.”
Dr Abdul-Nashiru Issahaku was the Governor of the Bank of Ghana in 2016.
He was appointed to serve in that capacity in 2016 by former President Mahama, replacing then Governor, Dr Henry Kofi Wampah who went on retirement unceremoniously.
Dr Issahaku prior to his appointment was the second deputy governor of the central bank from July 2013.
Interestingly, Mr. Mahama has condemned the President Akufo-Addo government for “supervising” the collapse of Ghanaian-owned financial institutions in the name of clean up.
According to him, the current government had much better options available than to collapse more than 400 financial institutions since the Akufo-Addo government took over in January 2017.
“There is a lot the government could have done,” he said.
But Government insists those institutions were already in their comatose state when it took over in 2016 due to the poor supervision from the Dr Abdul-Nashiru Issahaku-led Bank of Ghana.
Most of the financial institutions could not honour their obligations to their clients, creating panic withdrawals.
BY Melvin Tarlue