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Thirty-five out of the resolved 370 microfinance companies and savings and loans companies and finance house companies, all Specialised Deposit-taking institutions (SDIs), have no books or records to enable validation and settlement of depositors’ claims.

Receiver of the resolved companies, Eric Nana Nipah, in a statement issued on August 28 in Accra, said, claims of depositors of the 35 companies was worth approximately GH¢252 million.

The companies include Abis Plus Microfinance Limited, African Trust Microfinance Limited, AG Microfinance Limited, Bedel, Bengay Microfinance Limited, Big Dreams Microfinance Limited, Godigo Microfinance Limited, Crown Capital Microfinance Limited, Boin Microfinance Limited, D-Vanc Microfinance Limited, Elite Microfinance Limited, ICS Microfinance Limited and Liberty Daily.

The rest are Kingdom Trust Microfinance Limited, Kapital Express Microfinance Limited and Golden Trust Microfinance Limited, Star Plus Microfinance Limited, Noble Dream Microfinance Limited, Man Capital Microfinance Company, Royal Future Microfinance Limited, Era Microfinance Services Limited, among others.

Mr Nipah noted that his outfit was working with the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) to locate and retrieve the records of the affected companies, in order to be able to validate and settle depositors’ claims made on these companies.

At the commencement of the resolution process, he said, his office was unable to locate and secure both manual and electronic books and records of 157 companies, because they were non-operational long before the Bank of Ghana (BoG) revoked their licences.

Following the collaborative arrangement with the EOCO on assets tracing and investigations, however, the Receiver said, his outfit had been able to retrieve books and records from 131 of those companies, which were not operational at the commencement of the liquidation exercise.

The BoG on May 31 and August 16, last year, revoked the operating licences of 347 microfinance companies and 23 savings and loans and finance house companies respectively for breaching the Banks and Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions Act, 2016 (Act 930).

It explained that the revocation of the licences of these institutions was to get rid of insolvent and dormant institutions that have no reasonable prospects of rehabilitation and have denied depositors access to their deposits, thereby constituting a threat to the stability of the financial system.

It said, by the revocation of these licences, the BoG sought to protect the stability of the financial system and to protect affected depositors.

In accordance with Section 123(2) of the Act, the BoG further appointed Eric Nana Nipah, a Director of PricewaterhouseCoopers Ghana Limited (PwC), as the Receiver for the purposes of winding down the affairs of these companies.

The Receiver was mandated under Section 127(3) of Act 930 to maximise asset realisations for the benefit of creditors including, depositors, as well as settle the obligations of the company to its creditors.