The Bank of Ghana, today 31st of May, 2019, revoked the licenses of 192 insolvent microfinance companies that have ceased operations.
The action taken pursuant to section 123 (1) of the Banks and Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions Act, 2016 (Act 930), required the Bank of Ghana to revoke the licence of a bank or Specialised Deposit-taking Institution (SDI) where the Bank of Ghana had determined that the institution is insolvent or is likely to become insolvent within the next 60 days. Consequently, the Bank of Ghana has appointed Mr. Eric Nipah as Receiver for the specified institutions in line with section 123 (2) of Act 930.
The revocation of the licenses is 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. According to the notice released by the central bank today, revocation of such licenses seeks to protect the stability of the financial system and to protect affected depositors.
The central bank revealed that in order to salvage depositors’ funds, the Government of Ghana has made funds available to enable the Receiver to pay depositors, after validating claims.
2 NOTICE OF REVOCATION OF LICENCES OF INSOLVENT MICROFINANCE COMPANIES AND APPOINTMENT OF RECEIVER