Man Jailed For Operating Microfinance Company With Forged Bank Of Ghana License, Receives GH¢56k Deposit Daily

• A court in Accra has jailed a 34-year-old man for operating a microfinance firm illegally with forged Bank of Ghana licenses
• Kofi Asante was sentenced to 8 years in prison for forgery and 4 years for taking deposits without a license
• Before he was arrested by police, he had about 950 clients and was taking GH¢56,000 in deposits every day

A young businessman has been jailed by a circuit court in Accra for forging the Bank of Ghana's operating license for microfinance companies.

34-year-old Kofi Asante, aka Davis, was jailed for eight years for forgery and for years for taking deposits without a license. The sentences will run concurrently.

According to a Ghana News Agency (GNA) report, Asante was picked up after police obtained intelligence that he had set up an illegal microfinance business, KM Community Bank and Prym Capital, at Suhum and its environs.

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Before the arrest, Kofi Asante had about 950 clients who made daily deposits of GH¢56,000.

Before his sentencing, Asante told investigators that none of his businesses was regulated by any state agency.

Kofi Asante's illegal enterprise is similar to the DKM microfinance scandal that hit the country a few years ago.

Police intelligence led to Asante's arrest

The prosecutor ASP Emmanuel Haligah told the court that Asante used his illegal business to take deposits from people at KM Community Bank branches at Anum Apapam, Akorabo, and Amanase all in the Eastern Region.

As part of the investigation, ASP Haligah said Asante was arrested on June 30, 2023.

When his offices were searched, police found the forged microfinance operating license that only the Bank of Ghana grants.

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Subsequently, Asante confessed that he forged the documents between April 2022 and January 2023.

Some 24 people working at his illegal bank branches have since lost their jobs.

DKM customers threaten to curse Akufo-Addo over payments

Meanwhile, YEN.com.gh reported last year that a client of the defunct DKM Microfinance, Eric Adjei, threatened to curse President Akufo-Addo.

According to him, he is yet to retrieve his locked-up money despite the President's promise to victims of the scam when he was campaigning to become president.

Deputy Information Minister Pius Enam Hadzide disclosed around that period that about 90% of the DKM clients have been paid.

NPP won't allow a 'DKM experience'

Also in 2018, YEN.com.gh reported that Assin North MP and NPP flagbearer aspirant Kennedy Agyapong backed the government’s moves to clean up the financial space.

He said the NPP administration was wary of how the DKM saga, among other struggles within the financial sector, affected the NDC ahead of the 2016 elections.

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Kennedy Agyapong promised at the time that the government was doing the right thing by ensuring that Menzgold complies with the law.

According to him, the Akufo-Addo-led administration would not be slow to act as the opposition NDC did in the case of DKM.

Although former president John Mahama and his wife Lordina Mahama have been blamed for the DKM scandal, they have dared any institution to jail them if proven that they caused it or had a hand in it.

Source: YEN.com.gh