Fixing banking crisis costing tax payers more than GH14bn – Gabby Otchere-Darko

Founder of think tank, Danquah Institute and cousin to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko has said it is costing in excess of GHS14billion of tax payers money to fix the crisis in the financial sector.

Mr Otchere-Darko’s comment comes on the back of Bank of Ghana’s cleanup exercise in the banking and finance sector, which has so far led to the revocation of the licences of about 420 banks, microfinance institutions and finance houses collectively.

According to him, the money spent to fix the banking crisis could have been used for massive infrastructural development if the “mess” had been fixed before 2017 by the previous administration.

In a Facebook post, Mr Otchere-Darko said: “It is costing in excess of GHS14billion of your money, as taxpayers, to fix the crisis in the financial sector. First, there is no doubt that the mess swept under the shredding carpet before 2017 had to be fixed. Since 2015, several depositors had been struggling to get their own cash from insolvent banks, S&Ls, etc. This government and the new leadership at BoG decided to put nation first and fix it.

“Yet, what you hear, oddly enough, is that Akufo-Addo and his government are the ones rather killing Ghanaian banks! Such is the political irony of life if you underplay the need to tell your story and to do so well.

“Now, just think of it the list of projects that money could have done. GHS14bn could have given us a national railway network - something never done in the entire history of Ghana and the Gold Coast. GHS14bn (if spent better than what used to be the case) could have fixed substantially the roads in Ghana - your roads. Just think again of how many units of affordable homes (not Seglemi prices) that size of money would have built by now and how many families would have been housed.

“Leadership is, indeed, about choices and fundamental to any economy is a sound, strong and pro-active financial services sector that is ready, willing and able to fund business, lifestyles and development.

“Remember, the very alternative which we say is still scary was the very government that less than 4yrs ago decided, as a leadership choice, to look elsewhere when the mess was all piling up. #TheAlternativeIsStillScary #GhanaOnCourse”