Bank of Ghana Neglects Parliamentary Order

The total recovery of about ten million pounds (?10m) loan facility granted by the Midland Bank Ltd of UK to some Ghanaian "entrepreneurs" which was guaranteed by the Bank of Ghana has become a mirage, the Free Press, an independent paper, reports.

This follows the inability of Bank of Ghana, which guaranteed the loan for the beneficiaries to fully recover the loan mainly because of laxities on the part of the bank and lack of transparency and discipline in the financial sector during the last administration.

The Bank of Ghana in 1994, during Governor Agama's time, guaranteed a ?10m short-term credit from Midland Bank of UK for some Ghanaian businesses. Majority of the beneficiaries, some of whom cannot be easily traced, for lack of proper records are refusing to pay.

Investigations conducted by the "Free Press" revealed that as at December 1997, only 1.4 billion cedis out of 4.6 billion cedis, representing about 20% had been received by the Bank of Ghana even thought the loan was supposed to be a short-term one.