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The Public Enterprises Minister-designate has refuted claims that his microfinance company, Daily Capital Microfinance Ltd, did not meet the minimum capital requirement by the Bank Of Ghana (BoG).
Joseph Cudjoe told Parliament’s Appointments Committee Tuesday, that the development which led to the revocation of the company’s license came to him as a shock.
He said to the best of his knowledge, the company met the central bank’s minimum capital requirement hence the company had not breached the new statutory demands.
“When we saw the company’s name in the list among those whose licenses have been revoked I was shocked to the bone,” the Minister-designate revealed.
The minimum capital requirement demanded by the Bank of Ghana was raised from ¢300,000 to ¢2 million and was to be met by February 28, 2020.
The central bank in 2019 engaged in a clean up of the financial space as part of its measures to sanitise the sector.
The central bank on May 31, 2019, announced that it had revoked the licenses of some 347 microfinance institutions in the country in which the Daily Capital Microfinance was affected.
A statement from the central bank said some of the institutions were insolvent while others had been out of operation for some time now.
The nominee in answering the question posed by a member of the appointment committee, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa on whether his challenging private sector experience will not affect the confidence installed in him as the Minister for Public Enterprises.
In his response, Mr Cudjoe who was the managing director of Daily Capital Microfinance and an 80% shareholder, insisted that the company had gained a reputation in the financial sector.
He further added that the revocation of his microfinance license was a mere accident.
“It was an accident that occurred, an accident in the sense that the Bank of Ghana itself has failed to update its records of reinvestment that the company had done and registered that investment.”
The nominee revealed that he was advised to write a petition for a reinstallation of the company’s license after he went to the banking supervision department to address his distress.
“I went to the Bank of Ghana and went straight to the banking supervision department and asked why Daily Capital Microfinance was part of that list and they were also surprised and they said they will engage BoG to see if they will be able to reinstate it so they went ahead.
“They then advised that they will not willingly reinstate it so I should write a petition which I did,” he said.
However, he indicated that the petition to get Daily Capital Microfinance’s license to be restored was dismissed.
