A 72-year-old pensioner, Mr Samuel Tetteh, had the shock of his life when his bankers said his account details could not be traced after eight years of inactivity.
The pensioner, a customer of the Ring Road branch of the Standard Chartered Bank who opened his account 20 years ago, said he suspected foul play and has, therefore, called on the Bank of Ghana to intervene. He explained to the Daily Graphic on Tuesday that he opened an FEA US dollar savings account and a cedis account with the bank 20 years ago.
“The last time I received a statement of account was on May 13, 2008, with a balance of $500.27. Since then, I have not made any transactions at the bank. “But I went to the bank on January 4, 2016 to deposit some money, only to be told that the account could not be traced,” he said.
Imposter
He claimed that he was ordered out of the bank by the authorities who claimed he was an imposter.
“I persisted until they went through the system. I was told by the authorities that my account had been closed because it was dormant and that I could not access any money. I went back to them four days later for clarification and was told that I should be prayerful because they were working on a compensation package for me,” he indicated.
Mr Tetteh said an official at the bank later told him that the bank was now operating a new system and that the old account was therefore no longer in the system.
“My problem is that I do not understand how the money can just vanish from the account even if there was a migration from one system to another. I therefore smell foul play somewhere, so I want the Bank of Ghana to intervene,” he appealed.
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