Renowned Ghanaian economist, Kwame Pianim suggests to Ghanaian government to print money to pay depositors

In an interview on Accra-based Citi FM, Mr Pianim said this should be done because the depositors are suffering due to the weak supervision of the financial sector.

“My suggestion was to have let the Bank of Ghana find a means to pay the affected customers even if it involved the printing of money…We are making it difficult for the NPP to win this election.”

In his assessment of how the government has dealt with the financial sector issues thus far, Mr Pianim said the government must expedite the processes to prosecute persons who played any role in the crisis.

He explained that this will serve as an assurance for depositors who have been affected by the development.

“How long has it taken us to put some of these people on trial? The government has spent a lot of taxpayers’ money in order to pay for some of these difficulties.”

“What we should have done so that in the Ghanaian minds, the people who have stolen people’s Fixed Deposits, were taken to trial to let people know that the issues are connected. This is because we had some pensioners funds were put on deposits with some of these so-called distress banks. They are now being asked to go to the Receivers to collect the monies.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Pianim has advocated for the setting up of Special Asset Recovery Trusts. He said this Trust will help with the sale of assets of individuals and institutions who are guilty of the banking crisis.

He explained that this arrangement will help with the speedy recovery of funds and onward disbursement to disgruntled customers of the affected institutions.

The banking sector reforms started in 2017 when the BoG revoked the licenses of two banks. Between 2017 and 2019 the central bank revoked the licenses of nine indigenous banks for violating various regulations guiding their operations.

The licenses of over four hundred institutions comprising, Micro-finance, Savings, and Loans, as well as Fund Management companies, have been revoked to bring sanity into the financial sector.

The regulators said that if they had not stepped in at the time they did, about 4.6 million depositors could have lost their monies completely.

In 2019, President Akufo-Addo granted approval for some GHC15.6 billion to be used to support persons who have been affected by the financial sector crisis.