Ghana in economic storm - Agyinasare wades into financial sector cleanup

Delivering the Sunday, November 10 sermon, Bishop Charles Agyinasare admitted "we have economic storms" in Ghana, classfmonline.com has reported. 

He recounted the experiences of many of his associates and church members to illustrate his assertion. 
 “I've had different people talk to me about different things,” he said. 

Opening up he said “somebody said to me: ‘Bishop, all my savings and investments are gone'. Another said: 'In your book, 'Money in Your Pocket', you encourage us to save for our future and, so, I’ve been investing but here I am; it's gone'.

“A young man who had asked his employers to be investing 20 per cent of his salary in provident funds said: 'Bishop, I should have been eating well with my wife than to be squeezing to live and losing all my investment,'” he added. 

That was not all, the Bishop gave more examples. 

"Yet another said", he continued: 'We should have been informed that these institutions had a problem so we could have salvaged our investments when the banks were being closed'. Another one said: 'The provident fund of 530 workers in my company are all in the balance'. In the same light, someone who has worked till 65 years and is going on retirement this year, said: 'I'm saddened and don't know what to do because the fund management firm my company investment our provident fund with just had its licence revoked'.

The Bank of Ghana has sponsored Financial sector cleanup. 53 fund management firms had their licences revoked Friday.

The [Securities and Exchange Commission] said in their report on Friday that some of the companies are owing people and they are not able to pay and some of them have even stopped operating. 

This comes after the closure of 10 banks about a year ago. Three months ago 347 Microfinance Companies and 28 savings and loans and finance houses were also closed down. 

Recounting his response to his aggrieved church members Bishop Charles Agyinasare said  “Wow, money is failing is just as it did in biblical Egypt.”

Exhorting the customers who have lost their deposits and investments in the financial crisis, Bishop Agyinasare used the example of Isaac in the Bible to demonstrate to the congregation how God can still bless people abundantly in the midst of crises.

"That means that in the darkness that you're faced with, in the economic challenges that you are encountering in this season, God will bless you. … I came to encourage you and let you know if in the midst of an economic crisis, in the same year God could bless Isaac, the Lord will bless you. The Bible says the man [Isaac] waxed great, he went forward, he grew until he became very great; that'll be your portion, and that will be your testimony.

"The Bible says he had possession of flock and possession of herds, a great store of servants and the Philistines envied him. You will be envied. God is setting you up to be envied. … Whatever is being cut off in your life, I came to tell you God will give you a Rehoboth. The Bible says: 'Isaac dug those wells again until after the point there was no more struggle with him and he called that well Rehoboth'; he said: 'God has made space for me'. God will make space for you. … People will look at you and they will see the blessing of the Lord", the Bishop preached.