Source: newsthemegh.com
National Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate John Mahama has pledged that, if won, he will reinstate bank licenses that had been wrongfully revoked by the Akufo-Addo administration.
He asserts that this is one of a plethora of initiatives targeted at reviving the banking sector and raising investor confidence.
“Let me restate what I said in Ho during the launch of my campaign for flag bearer, we shall promote robust local participation in our banking, financial, telecommunications, tourism, mining, agriculture, agribusiness, and manufacturing sectors to grow the economy and create sustainable employment for the youth,” Mr. Mahama said in his post-election acceptance speech at the University of Development Studies (UDS) on Monday, May 15, 2023.
“We will construct a tiered banking system that would cater to different market groups and bring back indigenous Ghanaian investment in the banking and finance industry.
“We will provide laid-off experienced banking professionals with the chance to restart their careers and leave the low-paying positions they were coerced into.
“Banking licenses that were unjustly revoked by this Government would be restored, to the extent practicable,” Mr. Mahama promised.
From mid-2017 to January 2020, the banking sector cleanup was under the direction of Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta. The number of banks decreased from 34 to 23, while 347 microfinance firms, 15 savings and loans, and 8 finance houses had their licenses revoked as a result of the clean-up.
The leader of the opposition NDC said in his acceptance speech after winning the recently concluded NDC parliamentary primaries that he would see to it that employees whose appointments had been terminated during the banking sector clean-up were rehired.
In addition, he said he would push for changes at the Bank of Ghana because of the institution’s poor management of the industry and the harm done by the government’s internal debt restructuring.
“We’ll restore the nearly bankrupt banks. This will necessitate significant changes at the Bank of Ghana. because the Central Bank is a contributor to the development of this issue. I will establish a foundation to make sure Ghana does not go through a fatal debt management plan that sends many of our senior citizens who own government bonds to an early grave and destroys the investments of the middle class in Ghana.
A number of the institutions who had their licenses withdrawn had various levels of corporate governance failures, it was discovered. Without including interest payments, the estimated overall cost of the state’s fiscal intervention from 2017 to 2019 was calculated at GH16.4 billion.
In 2020, the government asserted that it had spent over GH21 billion on the endeavor to clean up the financial system.