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.”