Painful closure of banks helped to avert total collapse of banking sector – Dr. Ernest Addison

Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr. Ernest Addison has reiterated that closing down some banks during the Banking Sector cleanup was very necessary.

According to him, although the closure of the banks was painful and difficult, it was necessary to avert the total collapse of the banking sector which would have affected the entire financial sector in the country.

“Though the closure of the defunct banks was difficult and painful, the measures taken by the Bank of Ghana, supported by Government's assumption of the payments due depositors, helped avert the total collapse of the banking sector and by extension the rest of the financial sector,” Dr Ernest Addison said.

The Bank of Ghana Governor was speaking at the Chartered Institute of Bankers 2023 Governor's Day in Accra.

Governor Addison in his address indicated that the full benefits of the banking clean-up exercise will be noticed when the legal proceedings are finalised.

“Although we note the sanity and resilience in the banking system after the clean-up exercise, the full benefits would be achieved with a much faster completion of the legal proceedings including over 1,300 civil and 21 criminal cases currently pending at different stages in our courts,” Dr Addison stated.