Financial Sector Cleanup: GHC 3bn disbursed so far to affected investors
Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Rev Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh, has revealed that government has disbursed almost 3 billion cedis to investors of some liquidated fund management firms.
The disbursement of the funds follows the financial sector cleanup of 2017 which saw some 50 fund management firms have their licenses revoked.
Following the closures, validated claims made by persons who had invested in the now-defunct firms amounted to 8.5 billion cedis.
Speaking in an interview, Rev. Ogbarmey Tetteh noted that since payment began in 2020, almost 3 billion cedis have been paid out to investors.
The amount represents a mix of some bailout funds provided by government and monies recovered from the liquidation process.
The Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission noted that his outfit is committed to dealing with all validated claims.
“In terms of redemptions, people have taken their money out, like I said some would have left the money in, but those who have taken the money out, total redemption’s as at 28th of January this year was GHS 3bn. Total redemption’s from tier one is 1.54 billion, that is the amount that has been taken out from tier one.
“And so there are people out there who have received their money. And for the partial bailouts again the total amount that has gone out is 1.34 billion. So if you take the partial bailout, 1.34 billion and then you take the tier one where you can make the bailout 1.54 billion, if you add it that’s almost 3 billion actual payouts,” he said.
Additionally, Rev Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh noted that 4 out of the 47 fund management firms that had claims filed against them following the 2017 financial sector cleanup still have pending liquidation orders.
In the 2017 financial sector cleanup, 50 fund management firms had their licenses revoked, out of which 47 of them had claims filed against them.
According to Reverend Ogbarmey Tetteh, whereas 43 of the 47 firms have been granted liquidation orders thus allowing for contributors to be refunded, 4 still have pending liquidation orders.
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This, he says, means that contributors who are yet to receive payment, as well as those who were only partially refunded most likely belong to these 4 fund management firms still waiting for their liquidation grant.
Speaking on the same platform, he explained that the ongoing bailout scheme came about after the SEC had engaged government concerning the idea.
“Towards the end of 2020, we engaged the government about the concept or the idea of throwing in a partial bailout and government agreed, so the partial bailout was an amount up to ₵50,000. So if you had a claim more than ₵50,000 you should have received your partial bailout but then you’d still have money,” he said on Thursday.
Rev. Ogbarmey Tetteh noted that contributors who had received partial payment will only receive the remainder of their funds after their fund management firm receives the liquidation order.
He further revealed that there are two other classes of people who may have not yet received any funds.
These include people contesting their validated claims and those who had refused to assent to the government’s agreement for a bailout.
Concerning the former group, he said, “There are also some people who are contesting or not happy with the validated claims that they were given so when it happens that way there’s room for you to engage the agent who did the validation of the claims so that there can be some manual validation.”
For those that had refused to assent to the government’s agreement, he stated that they may have to receive their funds from the liquidator.
“To participate in the government bailout programme you must also agree that you are assigning your right to the government. So there are people who haven’t because it is voluntary,” he said.
