Ofori-Atta's 5-member committee to engage stakeholders 'is a joke' - Assibey-Yeboah

Mark Assibey-Yeboah, a former Chairman of the Finance Committee in Parliament, has stated that the finance minister's five-member committee to engage stakeholders across all the key segments of the financial sector – banking, asset, management, pensions, and insurance – as part of Ghana's move to protect the financial system is a joke. He questioned whether the team members can handle the legalities of the situation at hand and stated categorically that the debt situation is a government matter, not private. Ken Ofori-Atta indicated on Wednesday, September 28 that the government of Ghana intended to set up a 5-member committee as part of its moves to protect the financial system. The committee, the minister noted, “will immediately get to work to engage key stakeholders in the financial services sector, in addition to ongoing engagements with Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), social partners (labour unions, employers, and FBOs), academia, industry professionals, and the leadership of Parliament." But speaking with Accra-based TV3, on Friday, October 21, the former MP for New Juabeng South said, “that committee is a joke. I borrow money from you or you lend money to me, I cannot pay and you are asking a third party to come and engage me, for what? “You owe me, you have to sit down with me upfront, come clean and tell me how we are going to manage the situation, all those committee members, did I lend money to them? “Do they know about the forex reserves that the country has? Do they know the debt position? Can they handle the legalities of all these matters, what is this?" he quizzed. “This is a government matter, it is not a private matter, you owe money to people, did I lend money to these committee members? It is a joke,” Dr. Assibey-Yeboah observed. Watch the latest episode of BizTech below: PEN/SARA