Abena Osei Asare justifies Govt’s decision to close down Blackshield Capital Ltd

The Minister of State Designate at the Ministry of Finance and MP for Atiwa East Hon. Abena Osei Asare has justified Government’s decision to close down Blackshield Capital Limited as well as other Financial Institutions as part of the financial sector clean-up exercise.

The Former Deputy Minister of Finance made the revelation when she appeared before the Special Committee investigating the closure of the defunct Blackshield Capital Limited and others.

She revealed that an amount of Ghc 8.5 million was requested by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to pay investors of the fund management companies in the 2021 budget.

Additionally, she indicated that Parliament had approved a sum of Ghc 3.1 million in the 2020 mid-year budget adding that Government has provided an amount of 3.4 billion to help pay validated claims to investors.

She pointed out that, the amount was in a combination of a three-year veritable bond of 2.5billion as well as a five year Eurobond of Ghc 950 million.

The Atiwa East legislator posits that an additional amount of 1.4 billion was used to provide a partial bailout of Ghc 50.000 each to investors.

She stressed that the bailout was purely carried out on humanitarian grounds to provide relieve for investors who have gone a year without any payment.

According to her “the bailout is ongoing to fully settle 80 % of claimants including 89 % of individuals below 60 years. Even though in the 2020 budget review, SEC asked for Ghc 85million, an amount of Ghc 3.1 million was paid to the sectors‘’.

She further argued that Government inability to pay the funds was largely due to a shortfall in revenues.

Also, an amount of 3.1 million was paid to fund managers while Ghs 5.5 paid to savings and loans, Micro finance allocated but the actual monies of Ghc 1.36 billion were paid to investors as a result of the litigation process compelling government to halt payment.

In his remarks, the Chairman of the Committee and MP for Esikado Keta, Hon. Joe Ghartey assured customers of Blackshield Capital Limited that the committee is working assiduously to investigate the issues and present a report to Parliament.

The MP for Bawku Central Hon. Mahama Ayariga disclosed that SEC, the Official Liquidator claimed they are in court so the Committee directed that they provide the necessary documents to back their claims.

Source:myrepubliconline