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Fixing banking crisis will cost taxpayers more than GHS 14bn - Gabby

Prominent member of the New Patriotic Party and founder of Danquah Institute, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko has disclosed that the ongoing purging of the financial sector will cost the Ghanaian taxpayer over GHS 14bn.
Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko
Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko

He said such a huge amount could be used to develop other sectors of the economy if not for the negligence of the previous administration in stopping the rot in the first place.

In a Facebook post, Mr Otchere-Darko said: “It is costing in excess of GHS14billion of your money, as taxpayers, to fix the crisis in the financial sector. First, there is no doubt that the mess swept under the shredding carpet before 2017 had to be fixed. Since 2015, several depositors had been struggling to get their own cash from insolvent banks, S&Ls, etc. This government and the new leadership at BoG decided to put nation first and fix it.

READ ALSO: Fix Dumsor or you'll lose 2020 - Gabby warns NPP

He added, "Yet, what you hear, oddly enough, is that Akufo-Addo and his government are the ones rather killing Ghanaian banks! Such is the political irony of life if you underplay the need to tell your story and to do so well.

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“Now, just think of it the list of projects that money could have done. GHS14bn could have given us a national railway network - something never done in the entire history of Ghana and the Gold Coast. GHS14bn (if spent better than what used to be the case) could have fixed substantially the roads in Ghana - your roads. Just think again of how many units of affordable homes (not Seglemi prices) that size of money would have built by now and how many families would have been housed.

Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko

Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko

“Leadership is, indeed, about choices and fundamental to any economy is a sound, strong and pro-active financial services sector that is ready, willing and able to fund business, lifestyles and development.

“Remember, the very alternative which we say is still scary was the very government that less than 4yrs ago decided, as a leadership choice, to look elsewhere when the mess was all piling up."

The Bank of Ghana (BOG) since the start of the clean-up has revoked the licenses of about 420 banks, microfinance institutions and finance houses collectively

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