Mr. Eric Nana Nipah, the Receiver of the collapsed 347 defunct Microfinance Companies and 23 Savings and Loans and Finance House Companies, is urging individuals, groups and institutions who took loan facilities from the microfinance firms to repay the loans immediately.
According to him, he will soon publish the first list of recalcitrant defaulters and their respective addresses in the national dailies as the process is for the purpose of winding down the affairs of 347 insolvent Microfinance Companies and 23 Savings and Loans and Finance House Companies who had their operating licenses revoked on 31 May 2019 and 16 August 2019.
A circular, published on the website on Tuesday 23rd June 2020, stated that, “the Receiver wishes to notify the general public especially person/persons/institutions who took loan facilities from these defunct companies to visit any of the maintained branches of these institutions for repayment of the loans immediately.”
“Customers may settle their outstanding obligations to the defunct companies through the respective MIN MOMO numbers and/or receivership bank accounts listed ghreceiverships.com.
Also attached to the release were 23 branches, account numbers and mobile money numbers, which are also available on ghreceiverships.com.
“The Receiver would like to entreat all borrowers to cooperate with his authorised representatives/agents in this regard,” the statement added.
He further noted that, “Section 127 (3) of the Act [Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions Act, 2018 Act 930) ] mandates the Receiver to realise all assets resolved companies, including outstanding loans and advances for the benefit of creditors.”
Background
The financial sector clean-up was commenced by the Akufo-Addo administration in August 2017. It led to the collapse of nine universal banks, 347 microfinance companies, 39 microcredit companies or money lenders, 15 savings and loans companies, eight finance house companies, and two non-bank financial institutions.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in November 2019 also revoked the licenses of 53 Fund Management Companies.
SEC, in a statement explained that the revocation follows the companies’ failure to “return client funds which remain locked up and in a number of cases, have even folded up their operations.”
The action was taken pursuant to Section 122 (2) (b) of the Securities Industry Act, 2019 (Act 929) which authorizes SEC to revoke the license of a market operator under some circumstances.
However, the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, earlier this month sustained the revocation of the license of Blackshield Capital Management Limited, formerly Gold Coast Fund Management Limited following the completion of work by the Commission’s Administrative Hearings Committee.
Meanwhile, the SEC has restored the license of Monarch Capital Ghana Limited.