Archbishop Charles Agyinasare, who founded and serves as the head pastor of the Perez Chapel International, has revealed that the country’s present financial crisis has negatively impacted his investment.
According to him, he’s unable to retrieve his GH¢106,000 investment due to the debt exchange programme introduced by government because of the country’s economic crisis.
The revered man of God disclosed this to his congregants.
According to him, his bankers said they could only pay him GH¢1000 every week till the total amount is settled.
“I’m going to say something, don’t make it political, I’m not talking politics, I’m talking Ghana, I’m talking about we being in a time like that where our monies have been failing if it has not already failed. Our banks cannot even pay people’s bonds, bonds which were risk-free.”
“I’m going to give you my personal testimony. I have an instrument with a certain financial institution– a bank. I have been saving for a very long time, and now it’s [accrued to] about GH¢106,000. I told my bank I was taking my money, they said they are going to pay me GH¢1,000 every week. That means that the GH¢106,000 will take me 106 weeks to get all my money back,” Archbishop Agyinasare recounted.
He said the managers of his bank bluntly told him that they are offering him that payment plan because of his status in the country.
“And when I said they should do something about it, they said they are trying because it’s me, Archbishop. Because some people come to our bank and they weep. With the restructuring [DDEP] that we are doing, some monies will take 30 years to be paid. And so I’m not talking politics I’m talking about reality,” Archbishop Agyinasare said.
The outspoken preacher anticipated that most companies in the country will soon be laying off staff because their monies will be locked up in the banks.
“When money failed in Egypt, they came to Joseph… So you and I are going to the Lord in prayer. With what is happening, very soon people are going to lose their jobs because companies who have monies and cannot withdraw their monies from the banks, will not be able to pay their workers. So think about Ghana first and not politics,” he said.
Archbishop Agyinasare thus led his congregation to intercede for the country in prayers.
Background
Following the country’s economic crisis as well as efforts to secure a $3 billion bailout package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), government introduced the domestic debt exchange programme to help make its debt a bit bearable.
The debt exchange programme affects bonds and other financial instruments, a situation widely rejected by different groups.
A group known as the Individual Bondholders Forum has been pressing on the government to completely exclude its members from the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme, stating that their inclusion will destroy household confidence in Ghana’s financial system and securities market.
Banks, Insurance firms and other identifiable institutions billed to receive haircuts as a result of the debt exchange programme have publicly raised concerns.