Mrs Abena Osei-Asare, a Deputy Finance Minister, has assured Parliament that the Government would settle all outstanding validated claims of Blackshield Capital Limited, formerly known as Gold Coast Fund Management, once court issues were resolved. She said due to the ongoing court issues concerning the defunct Blackshield Capital Ltd, the Government was unable to make outstanding payment of claims to the customers. Mrs Osei-Asare gave the assurance when she appeared before the Parliamentary Committee investigating a petition by some customers of Blackshield Capital Ltd on alleged Government failure to pay their claims following the collapse of the Company. Citing from the 2021 Budget Statement and Economy Policy of the Government, Mrs Osei-Asare told the Committee that Government had been working to complete the bailout of the asset management industry through the provision of a bailout package for investors of the failed Asset Management Companies (AMCs). She said the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), on 8th November, 2019, revoked the licenses of 53 fund managers in its quest to build resilience, protect investors, and restore confidence in the domestic capital markets. She said three of these firms had their licenses restored, leaving the number of revoked licenses at 50. She said at the end of 2020, the official liquidator (The Registrar-General) had obtained 30 liquidation orders from the courts. She said three of the AMCs, namely, Canal Capital, Energy Investment Limited, and Gold Rock Capital Management Limited did not have any claims against them, leaving the number of AMCs with claims at 47. She said an amount of GHS8.5 billion was estimated by SEC to help pay investors of the failed AMCs; and that out of this, Parliament approved an amount of GHS3.1 billion in the 2020 Mid-Year Budget. She said at the end of December 2020, Government had provided an amount of GHS3.415 billion for the payment of validated claims to investors of 30 AMCs for which liquidation orders were obtained. She sa id this amount was in a combination of a three-year marketable bond of GHS2.5 billion and a give-year zero coupon bond of GHS915 million. She said out of the total amount provided by the Government, an amount of GHS1.4 billion was used to provide a partial bailout of GHS50,000 each to investors of the remaining 17 AMCs for which liquidation orders were pending at the courts. She reiterated that this intervention was on social and humanitarian grounds to provide relief for investors who had gone a year without any payments. She said the bailout was ongoing to fully settle 86 per cent of the claimants, including 89 per cent of individuals under 60 years and 82 per cent of those over 60 years of age. She said GHS3.1 billion was approved in 2020, and then in 2021, out of the GHS5.5 billion the Government also paid the GHS1.36billion. She mentioned that even though in 2020 what they were expecting was GHS8.5 billion, Government only paid GHS3.1 billion. 'So it's the same, we will arrange and make sure whatev er monies are due depositors through SEC, Government rules out a plan to pay; and so that is why Government has put in onto the tune of GHS4 billion and will make sure all those that are validated will be allowed to be paid. If the court issues are taken away, Government will go ahead and pay,' she said. Mr Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Odododiodio and a Member of the Parliament Committee Probing the defunct Blackshield Capital matter, asked the Deputy Minister: 'Are you saying if the court issues are not taken away, on compassionate and humanitarian grounds like before we wouldn't pay those who are still outstanding?'. Mrs Osei-Asare said: 'Mr Chairman, the compassionate and humanitarian ground was based on the severe pandemic that we all experienced. But Chairman whatever it is, if the way is cleared for Government to proceed, Government will gladly pay, whatever is validated and given to us by SEC. We really want to do these because we al so understand their plights'. Also making appearance at the Committee's sitting were Madam Jemima Maama Oware, the Registrar of Companies and Official Liquidator and Reverend Daniel Ogbamey Tetteh, Director-General of SEC. Source: Ghana News Agency