Ghanaians told to crosscheck licenses of financial institutions before patronizing them-
The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has cautioned the public against investing and patronizing the services of financial companies without due diligence from regulating authorities.
It said the financial sector in Ghana was regulated by the Bank of Ghana (BoG), and it behoved on all to crosscheck the state of a prospective financial institution before transacting business with them.
Mr. Richard Addo, Head of Development Finance Unit at MoF said operators of fraudulent financial schemes had deployed alluring rewards for investors but had always failed to deliver as promised.
Mr. Addo gave the advice during a financial literacy education campaign held in Cape Coast, as part of a nationwide campaign to empower financial services consumers, particularly the youth to be cautious.
It was attended by tertiary students from the University of Cape Coast, Komenda, Fosu, and OLA Colleges of Education and a host of students from the Junior High schools in the Region.
The primary goal of the campaign was to equip consumers to act in their best interest given their socio-economic status, following the recent developments in the financial sector in the country.
“The public is therefore advised to desist from doing business with all unlicensed loan providers. Banks, Specialized Deposit-Institutions and Payment Service Providers are cautioned not to facilitate the illegal transactions of unlicensed loan applications,” he stated.
He said individuals who sidestep the caution to patronize such services did so at their own risk.
He gave the assurance that the BoG would continue to act against them with relevant state agencies to promote the integrity of financial service delivery.
The Ponzi schemes, according to him, had resorted to offering unsuspecting recipients massive rewards through unsolicited messages that request recipients to click on hyperlinks.
The messages also charged the receiver to forward such messages which compromised the safety of their funds, their WhatsApp accounts, and other social media profiles, as well as those of friends and family on their contact list.
He raised concerns about the rate at which financial institutions were springing up in the country and asked recipients of such unsolicited messages to delete them upon receipt and desist from forwarding them to others to prevent their accounts from being compromised
The financial education campaign sought to empower consumers and strengthen their knowledge of the financial system to enable them to make sound financial decisions that promoted and secured their financial interests.
It was arranged by MoF with support from the World Bank together with financial sector regulators and industry associations.
Officials from the Ghana Association of Savings and Loans Companies, National Insurance Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission, and National Pensions Regulatory Authority took turns to educate the people on their products and services.
Source: GNA