Some disgruntled customers of one of the microfinance companies who had their licenses revoked by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) say they will petition the president, John Dramani Mahama to help them retrieve their monies.
Last week, the Bank of Ghana revoked the temporary license of some 70 microfinance companies and a money lending company for failing to meet conditions precedent to the issuance of a final license.
According to the BoG, it grants licenses to persons desiring to conduct the business of banking including micro-finance and money lending for a period of six months after which a final license is issued when the companies meet the conditions.
However, some customers of Our Grounds Microfinance Company at Navrongo in the Upper East region say their monies have been locked with the closure of the company.
One of the customers, Justice Ayidah who spoke to Citi Fm said the company’s manager has bolted refusing to pay customers monies they saved with the company.
“There was the involvement of Economic and Organised Crime Unit (EOCO) and Bank of Ghana that they close the account and the company was supposed to pay us 50% of our money so that later they add the remaining 50% with interest. That was the agreement but the man has run away and is nowhere to be found.”
The customers who number about 1000 say after several failed attempts to get their monies back, they have decided to call on the president to address the issue.
“I invested over six thousand Ghana cedis with a 17% interest in September last year. Some people invested as much as eight hundred thousand Ghana cedis with about 50% interest. All attempts to contact the company and its owner have proved futile,” Justice said.
“We planned undertaking a demonstration in Navrongo to present our petition to the president on Friday through the municipal chief executive to respond to our plight,” he added.
Meanwhile in the Brong-Ahafo region, customers of some embattled microfinance institutions like DKM Microfinance have resorted to legal action after several failed attempts to get the owners of the company to refund their monies to them.
The Bank of Ghana (BOG) has hinted it may be forced to liquidate properties of DKM Microfinance Company soon.
Source: citifmonline