Ideally, government should not be held responsible for individual investment but we care — Finance Minister

The government has announced plans to provide an additional $1.5 billion bailout for individuals impacted by the banking sector clean-up.

Speaking at a town hall meeting in the UK over the weekend, Finance Minister Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam acknowledged that while the government ideally should not be responsible for individual investment decisions.

However, the Karaga lawmaker averred that the current administration is committed to caring for Ghanaians.

He noted that such mistakes were made due to lack of adequate education on the part of the investors.

"Mistakes were made and people were not well-informed, and they didn’t know who to consult to be advised, but we also know that the people who are affected are suffering, and we have heard that some people have died and others had to commit suicide," the minister said.

In recognition of the hardship faced by affected investors, Dr. Adam revealed that another bailout program had been approved by President Nana Akufo-Addo.

In his words, "'This government is so caring that in the first place, we granted some bailout to all the affected and I want to tell you again that the President has directed that we do another bailout. So between now and October, we will release 1.5 billion Ghana Cedis to the affected people."

Nine domestic banks and more than 300 additional finance companies failed as a result of the sector cleanup.

A few of the failing banks were combined with or taken up by larger, more resilient banks.

The first to go were Capital Bank and UT Bank, which were purchased and assumed by GCB Bank in 2017.