Election 2020: No pay, no vote – clients of collapsed micro-finance companies threaten NPP gov’t

Over 50 clients of the 347 collapsed microfinance companies and 23 savings and loans firms have vowed to vote the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government out of office in 2020 if they do not receive their locked-up cash soon.

The irate group calling themselves the Coalition of Affected Savings and Loans Customers (CASLOC) massed up at a press conference in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region with placards some of which read: “We need our money to pay children’s fees”,” We are hungry”, ”First Allied, we need our cash”,” First Allied, we are starving”,” We can’t sleep”,” BoG come to our aid”.

Some of the distraught victims threw themselves to the ground to express how desperate they needed their monies.

The affected customers expressed regret about the slow pace of action being taken by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to address their concerns after revoking the licences of the firms.

Addressing the media, Secretary of CASLOC, Mr Ezekiel Annor Akabgo, refuted claims by the governor of the apex bank that  about 95 per cent  of the affected customers received their deposits.

“CASLOC can state and believe depositors in the savings and loans, and microfinance sectors who have received their locked-up monies or funds as at now will even amount to 10 per cent  of the entire population of these two sectors,” he noted.

He recounted deaths, psychological trauma, ejection from rented apartments, failed businesses, the inability of market women to trade and failure to pay school fees as some predicaments of the victims.