The Bank of Ghana (BOG) is collaborating with security agencies to locate and eliminate unregistered micro-finance agencies operating in the country.
Desmond Agbobah of the BOG Financial Institutions Supervision Department, gave the hint at a colloquium of tertiary students in Ho as part of the 2014 National Financial Literacy Week celebration.
The week, held under the aegis of the Ministry of Finance, was on the theme:, �Financial Literacy-Key to a Secured Future�.
Mr Agbobah said the security agencies and BOG co-operation was in line with the Central Bank�s policy, running since 2011, to reorganise the micro-finance sector.
He said as a result of that reorganisation process, micro-finance companies collapsing was rare since the past three years.
Mr Agbobah said it was important clients wanting to do business with micro-finance companies checked for their BOG certification and not a certificate of incorporation.
He said micro-finance was an important area of financing to bring along people on the margins into economic activity for accelerated national development.
Mr Agbobah said there were currently 390 fully registered micro-finance organisations, 50 money lenders and seven financial NGOs.
Ignatius Wilson, Manager, Financial Stability Department of BOG, said many clients of banks found it difficult to understand their products.
He said people were also not aware official compliant channels existed to thrash out issues with their bankers.
Richard Afaglo, an Insurance Executive with the State Insurance Company, who represented the National Insurance Commission, stressed the need for people to take policies to cover the various risks they faced.
He said claim processing was not as rigorous as perceived by the public.
Fredrick Dah, Executive of the Securities and Exchange Commission, said brokers had a lot of work to get people interested in putting small and big moneys into investments.
He said a Capital Market Week was being planned during which investment activities and opportunities would be hyped.
Kwesi Livingstone, Group Chief Executive of McOttley Holdings, said investments must compensate for rate of inflation and that clients must critically assess the corporate governance of firms they would deal with.
He said cash for investment must be part of the budget of individuals.
Rosina Akrofi, who represented the National Pensions Regulatory Authority, said the three tier pension scheme in Ghana was opportunity for all to put money aside towards retirement.
Portia Essel, Senior Economics Officer, Ministry of Finance, said target group for the celebration was tertiary students to give them some insight into the financial world.
Student of the Ho Polytechnic, Nurses Training College and School of Hygiene in Ho were among students who participated in the celebration.
Source: GNA
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