Banking sector clean-up: Ghana has become a major tourist attraction – Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu.

Caretaker Minister for Finance, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has averred that the Ghanaian economy has become more attractive to foreign investors after the financial sector cleanup.

He furthered that many jobs have been created as businesses are flourishing.

“The banking sector clean-up has been completed, businesses were doing well and creating jobs…and suddenly Ghana has become a major tourist attraction.”

He however noted that the economy suffered a setback after the coronavirus pandemic.

“We were indeed on a part of fiscal consolidation by 2019 and poised for economic transformation then out of nowhere, the COVID-19 pandemic hit us. Mr Speaker, the history of Ghanaians is a story of resilience, faith in God and ingenuity when faced with adversities and uncertainties.”

He said this during the 2021 budget presentation in parliament Friday, March 12, 2021.

As part of its efforts to restore confidence in the banking and specialized deposit-taking sectors, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) embarked on a clean-up exercise in August 2017 to resolve insolvent financial institutions whose continued existence posed risks to the interest of depositors.

The clean-up saw the revocation of licenses of 9 universal banks, 347 microfinance companies, 39 microcredit companies or money lenders, 15 savings and loans companies, 8 finance house companies, and two non-bank financial institutions.

The move by the central bank was a comprehensive assessment of the savings and loans and finance house sub-sectors carried out by the BoG in the last few years after it identified serious breaches.