Angry traders besiege Bank of Ghana premises in Sunyani

A group of aggrieved traders and other business people on Wednesday besieged the Brong-Ahafo Regional office of the Bank of Ghana (BOG) in Sunyani demanding their deposits.

The group, made up of petty traders, taxi drivers, second hand clothing dealers, food vendors and commercial photographers are among the 1,676 customers of the defunct Onward Investment Limited, a company whose operations have been stopped by the central bank.

They are mostly from Sunyani and Techiman municipalities.

In February this year, the BoG froze the company’s assets because it had not authorized the financial institution to take deposits or to engage in foreign exchange trading.

Clad in red and black apparel with arm bands, the group defied an early morning heavy downpour and went on a demonstration to register their protest against the delay of the bank over the repayment of their deposits to them.

They, however, gave the BoG a one-week ultimatum to effect all payments due them or they would advise themselves.

Inscriptions on some of the placards they held read “BOG-when do you think is the appropriate time for you to pay us after four months?” “We don’t want to say that you are thieves” as well as “When, how and where”.

With brass band music, the demonstrators paraded some principal streets of the municipality and later presented a petition to the BoG.

The petition, signed by Roger De-graft Sefah, spokesperson, stated: “We have run out of patience and therefore we want to hear from you before the unpleasant happens”.

It explained that members of the group were desperate “and some of us are ready to take any action at the expense of our lives, but we being leaders want to hear from you to ensure calmness and avoid any spiritual threats from some of us”.

Mr. Peter Ntsiful, Regional Manager of the BoG, who received the petition, assured the aggrieved traders that the Bank would forward the petition to it’s head office in Accra for redress.

He told newsmen other traders in Kumasi and Accra were also victims and that the BoG had sent the docket on the matter to the Attorney General’s Department for advice.

Mr. Sefah told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview that 815 customers in Sunyani municipality with savings totaling GH¢119,118 were locked up.
He said a total of GH¢1.8 million belonging to 865 customers in Techiman municipality was also involved.

Some of the traders said their businesses had collapsed, while many of them who took loans from banks were threatened with legal action.

They appealed to the government to intervene to enable the BoG to refund their deposits to them.

Kwasi Baidoo, a photographer and victim with GH¢4,000 at stake, blamed the BoG saying the bank woefully failed to execute its supervisory role.

Another victim, Victoria Antwi, a second-hand clothing dealer, demanding for her GH¢2,000 deposit said “I don’t want any interest anymore and I need my money from the BoG”.

“The monies frozen belong to us and we are ready to bring all the needed documents to justify our claims”, Joseph Amana Anafo, a khebab seller stated.

Source: GNA