Government has created high unemployment rate in the banking sector

Deputy National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Kwaku Boahen, says job losses under the ruling New Patriotic Party government are more than its “fictitious figure of jobs created.”

Kwaku Boahen asserted that “job losses from the banking sector clean-up exercise which has led to the collapse of nine indigenous banks and hundreds of microfinance companies, as well as the mining sector job losses and even the media sector, is over one million which have affected over three million direct dependents,” Kwaku Boahen told Lawyer Ohene Gyan on ‘Pae Mu Ka’ on Accra-based Kingdom FM 107.7

He added that “So even on the face of this fictitious figure of jobs created by the government it is clear that many people have lost their jobs under this government hence the excruciating hardship everywhere.”

He chastised the government for the high-handed approach to the banking clean up.

The President of the now-defunct UT Bank, Prince Kofi Amoabeng recently criticised the Rambo-styled takeover of banks perceived to be distressed by the Nana Akufo-Addo government and the Bank of Ghana.

Background

On May 31, 2019, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) revoked the licences of 347 insolvent microfinance companies, with government – through the Finance Ministry – making available GH¢900 million to enable the Receiver pay depositors after validation of claims.

With the revocation of those institutions’ licences and no announcement of mergers or acquisitions for them, what this means is that those companies no longer exist and jobs are lost forever.

By estimation, job losses will be in the 1,000s if, conservatively, each one of the 347 employed just 10 people.

A banking sector cleanup in 2017 and 2018 which cost $4 billion, saw the collapse of several banks and microfinance institutions. As expected, several gainfully employed Ghanaians lost their jobs, including others in the value chain.

On May 31, 2019, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) revoked the licences of 347 insolvent microfinance companies, with government – through the Finance Ministry – making available GH¢ 900 million to enable the Receiver pay depositors after validation of claims.

With the revocation of those institutions’ licences and no announcement of mergers or acquisitions for them, what this means is that those companies no longer exist and jobs are lost forever. By estimation, job losses will be in the 1,000s if, conservatively, each one of the 347 employed just 10 people.