Fire at NTHC: GOIL employees have threatened to sue for Gh30 million
Fire at NTHC: GOIL employees have threatened to sue for Gh30 million
Fire at NTHC: GOIL employees have threatened to sue for Gh30 million
Customers have begun to put pressure on the National Trust Holding Company (NTHC) for their assets totaling several millions of Ghana cedis, including numerous state-owned organizations.
Many distressed investors in the company are unsure of when their investment would be released at the NTHC because more than GH400 million in investor funds remain locked up there.
If the investor fails to pay the workers of Ghana Oil (GOIL) their money within a specified timetable, they have threatened legal action, including retired staff who have about GH 30 million locked up at NTHC.
About 120 employees claimed in an interview that starting in 2020, NTHC unilaterally stopped investing the funds in various products and, as a result, stopped paying interest to depositors.
The NTHC management acknowledged the company’s obligation to the GOIL employees and other clients, but stated that the investment business was seeking some assistance from the government.
However, the GOIL employees claimed in a letter to NTHC written by their attorney, Stephen Gyaben, that the investment company’s decision to withhold payment was a breach of contract.
“All attempts by the affected investors to retrieve their money have not been successful. For the past two years or so, all that the management of NTHC has done is to give unfulfilled promises of paying the investors their money”.
“I, therefore have my clients instructions to demand payment of their money within fourteen (14) days from the date of this letter failing, which they deserve the right to take all legal steps to have their money paid to them”, the letter concluded.
The company’s debt to its customers was acknowledged in an interview by NTHC’s managing director, Isaac Charles Acquah, who also claimed that management was aware of the issue and trying to find a solution.
“With respect to GOIL, because of the quantum involved, management held a meeting with the staff of GOIL to discuss the effort being made to get their money paid to them.
“We are not happy about it and we recognise the pain we are putting them through, we are not ignoring them because I led my management team to meet them”, Mr Acquah said.
Halfway
He responded that the money that NTHC occasionally raised was so modest in comparison to the exposure to GOIL when questioned whether it couldn’t meet the workers halfway.
He explained that any funds the NTHC was able to raise was used to pay out people whose investments were not as significant.
“There are others whose money is small, so if I manage to pursue those who owe us, the little I am able to raise, I pay those whose money is small.
“The little money I am able to raise from those who owe us, may not mean anything to the staff of GOIL because of the quantum of their money, they may even get angry with you but the same GH¢150,000 can be used to settle about 50 or 80 people”, he said.
“I agree, this policy of making payment to the small investors is rather becoming unfair to those whose money is big because it may appear like you are always no putting them in your plans”, he said.
“We have engaged the government extensively on this matter and we are confident that something positive may come out of the engagement”, he added.
Early this year, NTHC asked the government for an urgent bailout so that it could pay its debts to rural and community banks (RCBs) all over the nation.
The trust’s numerous retail clients, who have been impacted by its liquidity crisis since 2019, are anticipated to receive assistance from the GH500 million bailout request in order to settle their disputes.
The financial sector cleanup effort that has been going on since August 2017 is what’s to blame for the company’s debt burden.
Bailout
When approved, the bailout will also provide NTHC with new funding and aid in restructuring its client debt.
Large numbers of demands from investors who have their money tied up with the corporation also lead to the call for a rescue.
The NTHC, which has a total portfolio worth close to GH1 billion, is currently unable to pay its debt commitments to clients and nearly all rural banks because most of its assets have experienced some form of impairment.
Up until the Central Bank clean-up, which resulted in the licenses of 53 finance houses and fund management organizations being cancelled, all 145 RCBs kept their funds with the NTHC.
The NTHC, a state-owned organization with SSNIT as its principal shareholder, allegedly has not paid claims that have become due since the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) withdrew the licenses of about 53 fund management businesses, according to the directors of these impacted rural banks.
