BCCI Customers To Be Paid After Six Months

Accra The Acting Registrar of companies will from Friday, May 16, start paying foreign currency depositors of the Bank of Credit and Commerce Ghana Limited, 24.5 per cent of their total deposits at the Registrar General's Department in Accra. Mrs Eliza Owiredu-Gyampoh, acting registrar, who announced this at a meeting with beneficiaries today, asked depositors who have not shown proof of their deposits, to send a bank statement or a letter from BCC with a passport size photograph as proof of claim to the registrar-general.

Mrs Owiredu-Gyampoh has been appointed local receiver by an Accra High Court to receive dividends on behalf of the depositors from the liquidators of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International which was closed six years ago for fraudulent deals. BCC Ghana received three million dollars as dividend late last year but paid 1.763 million dollars to the local receiver. The bank has withheld 1.25 million cedis for various off-sets. These include off-sets against cedi loans contracted by customers who used their foreign deposits as collateral. Mrs Owiredu-Gyampoh said her department expects to hear further directives from an Accra High Court on Monday, May 12. The issue of the deduction generated mixed feelings among depositors at the meeting, but she gave the assurance that the department will liaise with the bank to ensure that beneficiaries who owe BCC do not benefit from the money she will disburse. She said the department had engaged the services of a consulting accountant to enable them work effectively and called for the cooperation of all beneficiaries.