[ 2021-02-19 ]

Oppong Nkrumah explains why his microfinance firm collapsed
The Information Minister-nominee, Kojo Oppong
Nkrumah, has clarified the circumstances that led
to the collapse of a microfinance institution he
had majority shares in.

The microfinance company, Oval Microfinance
Limited, was among 347 insolvent microfinance
companies whose licenses were revoked during the
banking clean-up in President Akufo-Addo’s first
term.

Mr. Oppong Nkrumah was Managing Director of West
Brownstone Capital which was the largest
shareholder of Oval Microfinance Limited.

During his vetting, he recounted that between 2017
and 2019, the directors and management of Oval
Microfinance “reported difficulties and
requested recapitalisation.”

“I was not in a position to inject any further
capital in the organisation,” he said.

He said the companies woes were compounded by the
August 2019 hike in the minimum capital
requirement demanded by the Bank of Ghana.

It had been raised from GHS300,000 to GHS2 million
and was to be met by February 28, 2020.

The capital requirement adjustment, Mr. Oppong
Nkrumah said he came “to the view that it [Oval
microfinance] was in breach of what the new
statutory requirement was.”

“I, as a [majority] shareholder, and many of the
other shareholders could not reinvest in the
organisation as was being required by the
directors and the management and the Bank of Ghana
effectively revoked its license accordingly,”
Mr. Oppong Nkrumah explained.

He also said his shareholding company was not a
defaulting customer and denied being given
GHS212,000.

He assured that his firm “was not indebted to
the organisation [Oval Microfinance] as at the
time the Bank of Ghana was conducting its
exercise.”

Source - Citinewsroom

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