Mahama Goes ‘Paperless’ – Speaks On Facebook

Former President John Mahama yesterday took his campaign a notch higher when he delivered a live address on Facebook.

Interacting with Ghanaians on social media, he said the on-going house cleaning exercise by the Bank of Ghana in the banking industry has not only threatened the survival of the affected companies, but also the country’s security. He described the exercise as a national security threat.

“The crisis has created major problems in the banking sector and financial sector including deepening the already widely held mistrust and lack of confidence in the system by Ghanaians. It appears to have no end in sight. It has also dealt a significant blow to the indigenous banks because such institutions have no external support to count on. While this development appears to be a threat to only the businesses that have been shut down, it is in fact a threat to our national security. The development in the banking and finance system and the matters arising call for grave concern on all who have been affected by this financial sector turmoil especially because it is an issue that threatens the country’s security.”

“About 20,000 people have lost jobs directly due to the 420 financial institutions that have been shut down. We have not even added the indirect jobs…By the time we do the total calculation, about 40,000 to 50,000 people may have lost their jobs,” he said.

During the interaction, Mahama took on the central bank and the Akufo-Addo government for revoking the licenses of the financial institutions insisting that there were other better options available.

According to him, were he the president, revocation of licenses would have been the last resort for his government.

“Revocation of licenses would have been the last resort and not the first resort. No country is immune to crisis in the financial sector,” he nored.