Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has challenged former President John Dramani Mahama to familiarize himself with the receiver’s report on the baking sector clean-up exercise before making comments, urging him to read the report and understand the specifics.
Dr Bawumia said that the cleanup exercise in the banking sector saved GHC4.6 million depositors’ money.
“We saved the deposits of 4.6 million bank depositors who really were going to lose their deposits if those banks were not saved. I don’t understand whether the former president has taken his time to understand the banking sector. Some atrocious things and this is why these banks had to be saved.
“They were not collapsed, they were merged into other banks and no banking depositor lost 1 cedi, everybody maintained. But very bad things happened, some of the banks broke all the rules and extended loans way above the single obligor limits.”
“They were given, in some cases 1 billion by the Bank of Ghana to help them out of the mess and they only got deeper into the situation. Other banks were given capital to save the situation, and they used that money to set up Capital Bank, instead of rescuing the problem that they had. They took the money from the central bank and set up another business which also collapsed. Some took money and invested in private properties.”
“So, it was against this background the governor came to report, and this was one of my nightmares in the last eight years. Most people didn’t understand how close we were to a collapse of the entire banking system. This is how we had to merge many of these banking sectors into other banks and we saved 4. 6 million depositors.”
“I’ll ask the former president if he hasn’t read, to go and read the receiver’s report or the BoG’s report and acquaint himself before making any further comments on matters he clearly doesn’t understand,” he said during a press conference in Accra on Sunday, August 26.
Mr Mahama had promised to restore the licenses of the banks that were wrongly revoked during the financial sector cleanup.
Additionally, he vowed to reform the port fees structure, making it more reasonable and transparent.
He also pledged to implement policies to address the decline of the Cedi’s value against the US Dollar, stabilizing the currency and promoting economic growth.
He said these while launching the NDC manifesto on Saturday, August 24 in Winneba.
“We will rationalize port fees and charges, and measures to stabilize the cedi and macroeconomic environment,” he stressed.
Bainamultimedia/Khadijahtu Kubura Kailani
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