The Bankers’ Association of Ghana has renewed calls for government to resume payment of the debt owed by the Bulk Oil Distribution Companies (BDCs).
According to the association, a further delay in the payment of the outstanding debts will impact negatively on the operations of its members.
“Coming out over the past months there have been a lot of negotiations between the Chamber of the Bulk Oil Distributors and the Bankers’ Association and we accepted agreements we made with the government with regards to accepting the debt and promised to make some payments by the end of the year,” Managing Director for HFC Bank Robert Le Hunte told Citi Business News.
Government is currently indebted to about 17 Bulk Oil Distribution Companies in excess of 500 million dollars. The call by the bankers follows government’s promises to resume payment of the debt after the just ended presidential election.
Mr. Le Hunte who was speaking at the sidelines of the Press Launch of HFC and MTN’s partnership for Mobile Money Services, said the repayment of the debt is critical and should be done as soon as possible. “Some of that money was paid and commitments were made for the remainder to be paid after the election.
I hope that these promises will be met by the government because I think the payment of that debt is critical there is no doubt in my mind and we all have acknowledged that the bulk oil distributors are owed a tremendous amount of money,” he remarked.
“It is important that if someone is owed money that they are paid and it is not right that someone will have to incur hardship from monies that are owed by other people.
So it is only right that this money is paid and it is paid as soon as possible,” the HFC boss concluded. Vice President elect, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia earlier warned of a crisis in the banking industry if government failed to settle debts owed the BDCs as quickly as possible.
‘The BDC debt is a real threat to the banking system. Our banking system will suffer a crisis if we do not take care. The banks are exposed to the BDCs some of the banks if the BDCs don’t pay will collapse,’ he said.
HFC and MTN Partnership HFC Bank and MTN on Wednesday, December 14, 2016; launched their partnership for mobile money services. The aim is to further push the mobile money agenda and ultimately increase the banking population in Ghana. MTN mobile money currently has 60,000 access points and continues to add on many more.
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