The Chairman of Groupe Nduom, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom is assuring customers of Gold Coast Holdings and GN Bank of addressing their cash withdrawal needs to a large extent, from Monday [October 1, 2018].
The two institutions within the group, have been hit by panic withdrawals by customers over the past few weeks.
This has been triggered by the recent developments within the financial sector with the collapse of seven banks.
For instance on Wednesday, scores of agitated customers besieged the Ridge branch of Gold Coast Holdings demanding their investments.
Some of the affected clients have threatened legal action over the company’s failure to meet their requests as scheduled.
However speaking to Citi Business News from the US on the latest developments, Dr. Nduom stressed the need to court consumer confidence to avert a disaster on the financial sector.
“Gold Coast has over 800,000 customers all over the country so when 25 percent of them come at the same time and say that they want their money no matter how long they were supposed to keep the money with us, then there is a problem. So it is remarkable that we have been able to contain that situation up until this point.”
The Groupe Nduom Chairman added: “We have financed some of our own investments; a significant portion which went into government’s projects, those funds are coming back and we ourselves have also gone to other places to find liquidity support while we wait for those investments we have made to mature.”
Meanwhile, a statement he issued on the matter highlighted efforts to attract investors into the company and for that matter Ghana to strengthen local companies.
“I am coming back next week to join the management, staff and directors of Gold Coast Fund Management and GN Bank in all the ten regions to prove that 25 years of creating value for our customers will continue uninterrupted.”
The statement further said, “No financial institution that invests funds on behalf of its customers in medium and long term projects can survive if its customers showed up one day and demanded their funds be paid back all at the same time. The same rings true for our companies. So we will ask respectfully for our customers to remain and stay with us.”
“No customer of a Groupe Nduom financial Institution has lost one pesewa in 25 years. By God’s Grace and our Hard Work, this will never happen!”.
Again, the business man was hopeful that clients should be able to possibly back down on the panic withdrawals when things start to normalize from next week.
“From next week, we will demonstrate to GN Bank’s 1.2 million customers and Gold Coast Fund Management’s 800,000 customers that their funds are safe with us. We will show our customers that GN Bank has one of the lowest non performing loan portfolios in Ghana, at less than 3%. We will demonstrate to them that Gold Coast has invested their funds in safe Government of Ghana development projects such as roads, bridges, schools and private sector job creating projects they can see.”
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By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
