The Central Bank is expected to issue a directive on risk management for players in the financial sector.
The second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) Elsie Awadzi revealed this at the just ended Annual General Conference of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) in Koforidua that saw the election of renowned legal practitioner Tony Forson as new President of the Association.
The move by the Central Bank comes in the wake of the collapse of some seven banks within the last 12 months—five of which—uniBank, Sovereign bank, Beige bank, Construction Bank and Royal—were merged under a new name Consolidated Bank Ghana.
Over 2000 jobs have so far been lost as a result of the collapse of the seven banks. Awadzi says the Central Bank is rolling out a number of measures to make the banking sector more robust following the crisis in the sector.
“We have recently had the act amended so that its provision can better help to establish a first deposit protection scheme and we are hoping that in the next few months running into early next year, this deposit protection scheme will be up and running so that depositors will have more confidence in putting their monies with banks.
“This is something that all stakeholders need to take seriously. It is everybody’s interest that the banking sector is strong and resilient,” she said.
Economy on right track – BoG
At a separate programme, the BoG assured the public the fundamentals of the economy are sound and strong, despite recent depreciation of the Cedi.
Speaking at “The Cedi Forum” to discuss the depreciation of the local currency, the head of Financial Markets and Treasury Dr Stephen Opata pointed out that the Central Bank has firm grips over the issues.
He said the depreciation of the Cedi is temporary, promising that measures such as “adequate reserves” have been put in place to address the shocks. “We’re providing liquidity to the banking systems to meet the shocks,” Opata stated.
He added: “We’re trying to ensure that there is a lot of liquidity in the banking system. The shocks will come, but the BoG will always be there to manage it. The important thing is to make the economy attractive.”
“According to our analysis, this currency is well aligned. We’re not too strong and not too weak. We’ve had a good year and based on the fundamentals, we were expecting to have a better year until recently,” Opata asserted.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
