Chairman of the NPP Manifesto Sub-Committee on the Economy, Dr. Mark Assibey-Yeboah, says no jobs were lost during the government’s 2017 banking sector clean-up.
Speaking in an interview on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen show, he addressed concerns about the exercise, insisting that employees were compensated accordingly.
“The beautiful thing is that jobs were not lost… where were the jobs lost? As a matter of fact, when CBG became Consolidated Bank with the other banks, they brought a proposal to Parliament, and that’s why the government had CBG everywhere,” Dr. Assibey-Yeboah said.
He further noted that the clean-up was essential to address the financial instability of some banks, which were mismanaging depositors’ funds.
“Their books were not good, and if you know some of the mess they were in, they had acquired properties all over with depositors’ funds. There were people who had their monies matured, and they couldn’t access it… some could not cash their own monies, and that brings panic in the system. If people get to know that a bank can’t pay their cheque, it is not a good thing,” he explained.
The banking sector reform, which began in 2017 under the supervision of Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, led to a reduction in the number of banks from 34 to 23.
Additionally, 347 microfinance institutions, 15 savings and loans companies, and eight finance houses had their licences revoked due to various degrees of corporate governance lapses.
Dr. Assibey-Yeboah defended the Bank of Ghana’s actions, stating, “These are the facts… the Bank of Ghana will not revoke your licence until you have reached a point of no return.”