GH¢10,000 LIMIT SET FOR DKM REPAYMENT

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday, January 05, 2017

Another batch of customers of the defunct DKM Diamond Microfinance Company is currently being paid and the Official Liquidator has set GH¢10,000 as the limit.

The Registrar General’s Department, which is the official liquidator, tasked Pricewaterhouse Coopers to make the payments.

According to reports, the process is going on smoothly but some of the affected customers are still complaining.

Initially, payments made to clients did not exceed GH¢3,500.

Presently, customers, who invested up to GH¢10,000 and below, will have all their monies back while those who invested more will be paid GH¢10,000 and later given their respective balance.

A local representative of PricewaterHouse Coopers, Darren Owusu McDaniels, told reporters yesterday that “I will not be able to know because we are just facilitating the payment exercise. We just follow the process brought to us from our people in Accra and make sure everything is in order. I will not be able to tell what went into the raising of the threshold.”

He added that they were working hard to resolve all the challenges associated with the process.

“Initially, some people did not see their names in the list that came out. Others too did not have their expectations met after coming to collect the monies, but we have explained everything to people better so everything has been cleared and it is running smoothly.”

The Principal Company Inspector for the Official Liquidator, Jones Nathaniel Ansah, later confirmed the payments.

The auditing firm has announced new measures, requiring all customers of DKM to visit Wa in the Upper West Region for their funds.

“PWC has currently rescheduled all payment to take place in Wa and if people want a change in this arrangement, it may affect the whole process.”

“This time around the cut across pay is GH¢10,000 so if you invested more than GH¢10,000 you will get the GH¢10,000 now while we renegotiate the rest of the payment with you later,” he added.

There are about 93,000 names validated manually but as at December 20, 2016, only 41,000 names had been released and posted at the various payment stations following the DKM financial scandal that brought untold hardship to customers.

This second batch of payment is expected to cover the remaining 52,000 customers.

Woes of DKM customers

Thousands of customers of DKM Microfinance Company lost their investments running into millions of cedis after the Central Bank in 2015 suspended the operations of DKM for violating the Banking Act.

Though the Central Bank subsequently lifted the ban on the company’s operations, DKM failed to pay its customers.

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) confiscated the assets of the company and tasked the Registrar General’s Department to commence the liquidation process to pay the monies of the customers.