Support indigenous banks with loans - Nduom urges government

The President of Groupe Nduom, Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, has called on the government to support indigenous banks with loan facilities to strengthen the financial sector.

He said investing in indigenous banks was the surest way to solve the financial crisis in the country, adding that when that was done, the economy would grow and jobs would be saved.

“The government should not give taxpayers’ money to organisations for free, let the government rather give the private organisations facilities that they will pay back so they can grow the indigenous sector,” he said.

Dr Nduom was addressing the media at the Kotokuraba Market in Cape Coast during his “stop the panic withdrawals and strengthen our indigenous banks’’ tour on Monday, October 8, 2018.

Duty

Dr Nduom said it was the duty of Ghanaians to ensure that the economy was developed, saying “foreigners do not wait for Africans to come and develop their countries for them, therefore we should also take a cue from it, that we as Ghanaians have to build our economy ourselves without waiting for foreign aid”.

“We should, therefore, not withdraw our monies from our local banks and deposit them into foreign banks as this would cause the collapse of the sector,” he stated.

Panic withdrawals

Speaking to traders at the market, Dr Nduom urged customers of GN Bank and Gold Coast to put an end to the panic withdrawals that had hit the banking sector in recent times.

He assured customers that their monies were safe, adding that the bank was financially sound and the panic withdrawals would rather affect the efficiency of the bank.

“When depositors bring their monies to the banks, what we do is to invest the money and loan it out to contractors and businessmen.
 
Therefore if 20 per cent or even 15 per cent of the depositors decide that they’re going to withdraw all their money in one day, then we would have a big problem,” he explained.

Investments

Dr Nduom said Gold Coast had invested the funds of customers in safe national development projects such as roads, bridges, schools and private sector jobs.

He said the organisation was working hand in hand with government to make sure the projects they had invested in were successful.

“We support reforms in the financial sector that is why we are going on the tour to educate Ghanaians on the need to support indigenous banks and stop panic withdrawals,” he added.