Abena Osei Asare, a deputy Minister of Finance, has said banks currently operating in Ghana are stringer following the cleanup exercise’
She said during the unveiling of the New Patriotic Party’s 2020 elections manifesto Saturday, that the government saved the entire banking sector from collapse.
She pointed out that the deposits of over 14million customers of banks were saved as result of the shrewd decision taken by the government and the central bank to clean up the sector.
But for that decision, she said, the sector would have collapsed by now and further plunged the economic into sever difficulties.
The government spent GHS29billion to support the banking sector after the cleanup exercise and also pay customers of the failed banks.
In that exercise some nine local banks went under.
Critics of the government including Former President John Mahama said it was senseless for the government to have spent 29billion on paying depositors their moneys rather than investing that amount in the banks that collapsed.
But Madam Osei Asare said at the event on Saturday August 22 that “Our banking industry was on the verge of collapse, we have fixed it.
“We have saved 14million Ghanaians from losing their investment. Some even with the aide of hindsight have suggested what they could describe as a common-sense approach that we should have given money to the banks to make their shareholders happy. Mr John Mahama, you did exactly over and over again and what was the result?
“We were concerned with saving the whole industry rather than pleasing the same people who supervised the near collapse of the industry .
“Today, the banking has sector has remained sound, solvent resilient despite the adverse impact of the coronavirus and this is due to decision to clean up the sector.”