Ken Thompson calls for acceleration of digitization drive and effective commercial courts to release private sector funding for economic dev’t
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Dalex Finance, Ken Thompson, has said the acceleration of government’s digitization drive and speedy prosecution of debt defaulters by commercial courts in the country will give financial institutions confidence in lending to the private sector.
According to him, financial institutions in Ghana are ready and willing to lend to individuals and businesses particularly Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), but are unable to do so due to the fact that there are no ‘incentives’ for these businesses to repay the loans.
Speaking at the 10th edition of the Business and Financial Times Ghana Economic Forum (GEF) on Monday, October 18, Mr Thompson noted that with the acceleration and expansion of government’s digitization drive, linking the databases of various statutory bodies such as the GRA, SSNIT, Land Registry, bank accounts, telcos and others, and the provision of access to these databases for a fee, will make it easier for financial institutions to assess credit risk.
Also, the speedy prosecution of debt defaulters by the commercial courts and enforcement of court orders by bailiffs with enhanced powers will give financial institutions additional confidence to lend.
“Commercial courts must sit day and night to prosecute debt defaulters. Financial institutions are willing and able to pay for the services. Let’s make the lawyers and the judges rich”, he said.
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“We need to release the private sector to fund economic development and financial institutions are willing and able to provide the funding”.
“Dalex Finance for instance lends only to public sector employees because we can confirm their identification, collect our money and they cannot easily run away”.
“So to increase private sector lending to SMEs, government must provide the appropriate infrastructure for identification and collection, and if you don’t pay your loan, we shut you down”.
Speaking further at the event, Mr Thompson said measures to facilitate funding of SMEs by financial institutions could help to significantly increase the country’s consumer debt to GDP ratio (approximately 19%) by an additional 20%.
According to him, neighbouring country such as Togo, Ivory Coast and the Gambia have higher consumer debt to GDP ratios and South Africa is doing over 100%. With a GDP of approximately $60bn, additional lending to the private sector could increase by $12bn.
