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04.01.2016 Feature Article

DKM, God Is Love And BoG Mess, Alert Mahama

Dr. Wampah, Governor Of Bank Of GhanaDr. Wampah, Governor Of Bank Of Ghana
04.01.2016 LISTEN

People in the Brong Ahafo region and the three Northern regions have indeed become victims to what is either to be described as a grand financial conspiracy to rob them of their legitimate entitlements or a financial scam authorized and certified by bank of ghana, the central bank of the republic to dupe a voiceless majority in the areas mentioned.

Ghana has indeed become a laughing republic, the fact that a nation with a considerable institutional reputation in the sub region will sit aloof and watch such institutions to become so irresponsible to the extent of jettison their core or fundamental duties reduces governance and institutions to nothing but a joke in Ghana.

The bank of Ghana as one of the key state institutions charge with a responsibility of offering maximum financial security to the people, a role which is to be consolidated with other equal relevant roles stipulated in the BANKING ACT to promote and facilitate effective financial administration in the country.

On the account of the various financial impropriety crusade led by some fringe financial institutions like the DKM Micro Finance, God is Love and several other, the bank of Ghana has indeed failed Ghanaians especially in the case of DKM and God is Love, through the activities and other engagement with the central bank of Ghana, a significant number of Ghanaians can neither account nor trace the fate of huge sums of monies hijacked by bank of Ghana.

The worse of it all is the attitude of indifference and severe impunity exposed to these thousands of customers out there with no reasonable explanations to help curtail their anxieties , frustrations and disappointments. There is enough evidence to substantiate the fact that several of the victims are reeling in anguish and mental trauma while others are lingering on a choice either to end their lives or live a life of perpetual misery.

The bank of ghana is responsible for handling and supervising all financial or monetary transactions in the country and to realize this, bank of Ghana through the banking Act is empowered to issue and withdrawal banking license. In effect any financial institution whose operations are in direct contravation with the stipulated banking laws regulating the various banking engagement could be revoked.

The Act again empowers bank of Ghana to setup a banking supervision department to track the various engagement of financial institutions nationwide.

And with such an overwhelming oversight mechanism in place, how then or by what means did some financial institutions like DKM microfinance and God is love fund club receive the greenlight to streamline their operations not to talk of the luxury of time accommodated to these institutions to engage the public on investment line, a move which convinced a lot of people to accept and appreciate the authenticity of these establishment forcing massive participation. In their days of operation these "evil establishment" as it's called after transforming seveal people into a walking textbook of disappointment and frustrations, became the only known financial hope of many in the aforementioned region fading the popularity of the conventional banks.

The operations of these financial institutions which many of the customers described as "friendly financial hub" became very effective to the extent that every household in Brong Ahafo got involved, that depicts the reality and damning consequences of this hijack.

Sometimes the way and manner the supposed learnered people behave and handle sensitive issues in this country put to question both academic and intellectual integrity of our educational system. Bank of Ghana after noticing the so called irregularities in the operations of these institutions and knowing very well that customers of these institutions were not from Cambodia but rather Ghanaians whom they own an outstanding responsibility to offer a maximum financial security and to protect their intetest should have thought about rolling out measures which would refund the various investments to their respective owners but rather decided to employ deceptive tactics to muddy such a serious issue because in our part of the world, those wielding power can abuse and use it to intimidate the very people who feed them through their taxes without any considerations. People exercise foul of discretions without penalization.

Infact the strategy adopted by the very people within the central bank of Ghana towards addresing this case was a total betrayal of academic intelligence unless maybe this is how the interpretations of PHD's , Masters degree and Bsc. holder are all about, using academic ingenuity to terrorise the people, a conspicuous display of academic embarrassment.

When you critically and dispassionately chronicle this issue, there are several fundamental questions beaming for address, firstly, the bank of ghana has a supervisory department that is responsible for identifying every financial institution in operation so therefore if the operations of these institutions were illegal as has been alleged, who authorized them in the first place to commence their activities especially in the case of DKM, which had been in business for the past five years without any red flag from the central bank. Who issued the license with bank of ghana affirmation which was bolding displayed in their respective banking halls, a proof which was even incorporated into the various radio advertisements which ran for many years and lastly, why the sudden interest in their operations by bank of Ghana.

In fact the sudden dramatic interest exhibited by the managers of the central bank and the subsequent immediate closure of the operations of these microfinance companies genuinely sparks doubts about the motives behind such a move which many have tagged as a clandestine strategy with robery instincts especially after it became evidents that over billions of Ghana cedis had been collected. I don't intend to insinuate or sound cynical but rather wish to put myself on a mission to seek clarifications to my un-understandings and several individuals out there wearing same interest.

The closure of those investment companies has brought many troubles especially in Brong Ahafo and the worse of this killing and psychotic evoking situation is the attitude of indifference exhibited by government, a social democratic government that is supposed to look after the welfare of the people surprisingly, have appeared unconcern about a move activated by the opposition to implicate the government in such a shameful enterprise, chanting and weaving the phrases into political chorus "stealing from the poor in this 21century", " government is hiding behind the central bank to steal from the people". Government should expect that such news will sell and achieve the intended political capital especially when leaders of the opposition party appear to be the very people consoling and leading the crusade towards recovering the lost fortunes of these panic-stricken and helpless victims.

I must admit l feel so shamed to live with the knowledge that the government of the day has not shown any genuine commitment to resolving such a sensitive issue.

Are we safe at all, l have my reservations to this question because if at this age in Ghana, with the various security intelligence in place, we still live under the mercies of unscrupulous men who in the name of banking throw deception to rob the citizenry of their hard won currencies because of institutional failure then it questions the relevance and the integrity of these state institutions manned by the so called, the finest of intellectuals churned out from the parading universities in the country..vey laughable.

ln any case, if this matter is classified as a non irrelevant matter to warrant an immediate response and resolution from government then, l wonder whst our priorities are as developing country, isn't it obvious that the situation have had serious repercussions not only on economic activities but rather several related cases of death in the form of hanging, poisoning which records from various hospitals in B/A affirm.

A myriad of problems which inludes cases of school dropout, marital misunderstandings and subsequent collapse, psychological traumas and its related health challenges have hit an alarming rate, in fact the revelations are so damning and ugly.

Can it act of broad day thievery and blatant irresponsibility on the part of men and women incharge of financial appropriateness in the system happens anywhere outside our jurisdiction even though we are tagged to be the leading name in both administrative and institutisonal appropriateness in the sub region.

What exactly is government doing to remedy the situation to lessen the financial burden some Ghanaians are going through, after submitting series of reports to various government quarters for swift resolution, it has been almost a year now and nothing seems to have been done about the situation while victims continue to brood in abject poverty, could you imagine that some government workers who used to receive a monthly salary of 2000GHC now take home 150 GHC because most of these people went for loans to invest with these microfinance companies with the hope of recouping within specified periods but unfortunately thoses dreams got shattered the very moment bank of Ghana authorized their closure, irrespective how wrong those moves were, the reality is simple, the monies were legitimately owned and blaming them for bad investment may not be a wise idea what is required is financial justice. I think government can now appreciate the scope of this problem.

The bank of ghana's attitude towards resolving this issue is sickening, no definitive road map is outlined to ensure payments are made to customers at all cost, a decision government must boldly initiate or are we saying government cannot interfere in the operations of bank of Ghana in the face of this beaming failure and irresponsibility?. Is government really going to sit aloof and watch the bank of Ghana to deny the people of their investments? The people cannot continue to suffer especially at this era of economic hardships.

The opposition is making a great and enviable political capital out this situation and l sincerely believe they have to especially when the government attitude towards resolving this relevant issue has bexome that of indifference. There is no shred of evidence out there to justify government's commitment. The victims find solace in the opposition members of parliament of the respective areas, they have become crusaders pursuing the matter for a possible refund.

The deafening silence of government on this matter does no good but rather goes to give credence to the public speculations fueled by the opposition that government has connived with bank of Ghana to haul their money for 2016 campaign.

The only way to defrail and neutralize any potential electoral threats of such convincing propaganda is to evoke an immediate action plan which will force both the microfinance companies and the bank of Ghana to refund every cobo own the people.

This is politics not a church organization, leaders are supposed to work for the people in diverse ways which include ensuring and providing safe financial environment.

Sadly some government officials have labeled the investment "a greedy venture" so therefore customers deserve the troubles they are going through, what? a leader sending such a message to aggrieved customers in their moment of desperation, despondency and anguish !! interesting times indeed.

Several assurances have come from various government quarters emphasising government plans to force payments but those promises have rather remained mere political rhetorics with no concrete actions, so shamful.

Its no surprising that the media is silent on such relevant issue afteral any reportage on this matter will run with no financial benefits but rather fixating on trivial political issues will obviously come with monetary compensations for propelling certain agenda of interest. The situation has massively contributed to the extreme political obsession driving our media into the lines of unprofessionalism, reporting the truth has now become a matter of discretion, you only fellow it when it profits your political orientation or pay masters.

The major contributing factor of making financial scam so pervasive in our time has to do with the media decision to throw away both the ethics and integrity of journalism, once money issued for commercials, the right will be handed to you and one could even advertise the sales of his fellow human without a blink to notice the extent of bleedings such inactions will to journal ethics.

The media has become a handy tool used by scammers to throw deception which prepares the minds of their respective listeners for a possible robbery. It's no longer a surprise to see a fetish priest who used to seek refuge in the bush hijacking tv screens with trivial comedies which we ignorantly termed as miracles. Thieves have now regain confidence flirting from one radio sation to other chantings lotto numbers. What sort of system are we creating or is this the practical rendition of an African version of democracy? What a pity.

This is my second time of writing on this particular subject not because l have a peculiar interest but as a citizen l feel overwhelmingly ashamed to be witness to such an alarming scale of gross irresponsibility our institutions are breeding.

My only consideration is that, maybe the presidency have not been able to asses fully the seriousness and the dangers the situation poss to the people involved, l therefore l take this opportunity to officially inform his Excellency John Dramani Mahama whose wife is from the town at the centre of this financial mess, Nkoranza as a matter of urgency, resolve this issue as soon as possible because officials of the bank of ghana have proven incapable of handling this life threatening situation without victimizing the already traumatized customers.

It's also important we roll out stringent measures to deter persons or any group of persons or syndicates with the intention of taking advantage or clinging to various loopholes in the system especially the glaring financial insecurity to victimize and terrorise genuine but desperate money seekers on the lines of fabricated business transactions.

Government silence is disappointing, the president must act now, government's intervention can save several lives waiting to slip into perdition because of this financial coup d'etat. Happy new year to all my cherish and enthusiastic reader across the length and breadth of the country, may the good Lord will continue to shower his blessings on us and our country. God bless Ghana.!!

The Bible Is my witness !!
Ivan Kyei Innocent, [email protected] , 0206262717.

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