Microfinance firms in Kumasi are recording high withdrawal rates as clients take precautionary measures to protect their savings.This has been necessitated by liquidity challenges faced by some multi-branch firms in the past few weeks.'We have seen huge withdrawals in member companies and this can't continue; there should be a way out We keep prompting ourselves that the more you branch the riskier it becomes and you also lose hold of control over your operations,' noted Collins Amponsah Mensah, National Chairman of the Ghana Association of Microfinance Companies (GAMC).The public apathy has been attributed to the lack of safety nets to protect depositors when firms collapse or are shut down by the regulator, the Bank of Ghana.A depositor, Abdulai Rabi, for instance, was promised a 10% interest rate on a three month fixed deposit product with Royal Winners Financial Services, one of the firms in distress.He now fears losing his GH¢25,800 investment. Abdulai has petitioned the Bank of Ghana as part of efforts to get a refund of his deposit, but this has proven futile so far.The GAMC is looking forward to signing Memoranda of Understanding with the Bank of Ghana 'where the regulator will assign responsibilities to us, so that we can play part of their supervisory and oversight role for them and they also support us to put in the right structures and systems to be able to support that assigned role and responsibility', Mr...
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