GUTA lauds government for banking sector clean up

The Ghana Union of Traders Associations (GUTA) has lauded the government for its effort to sanitise the banking and financial sectors.

A statement signed by Mr Alpha Shaban, the General Secretary, GUTA, and copied to the Ghana News Agency, said it was worthy to state that prior to the exercise most traders had complained about their inability to withdraw their savings from some banks and non-bank financial institutions.

“One clear example is that of a member of GUTA, who had received cash payment of one hundred thousand Ghana cedis from his customer in the evening of a Friday,” it said.

“As he did not want to risk locking the money in his store, he decided to deposit it in his savings and loans account, so as to cash it for business the following Monday, but has not been able to withdraw the money to date. This savings and loan company is now defunct.”

The statement said this was a clear picture of what had been going on in some of those financial institutions.

“It is against this background that GUTA heaved a heavy sigh of relief when the government boldly came out to rescue innocent victims from this awful situation.” 

“However, we would like to entreat the government to put in place effective measures to forestall its recurrence.”

It said while doing so care must also be taken not to suppress the trade in money adding that government should closely monitor, evaluate and revamp the remaining good ones to rekindle confidence in the banks.