Man jailed 8 years for forging Bank of Ghana Microfinance licence

A 34-year-old man, who forged a Bank of Ghana (BoG) licence to operate a microfinance company at Suhum in the Eastern region and its environs, has been sentenced to eight years imprisonment by an Accra Circuit Court.

Kofi Asante, pleaded guilty to the charge of engaging in deposit-taking without licence and was additionally sentenced four years to prison. 

On the charge of forgery of an official document, Asante pleaded guilty and was sentenced to eight years imprisonment. 

The sentences are to run concurrently, the court presided over by Joojo Amoah Hagan, said the prosecution, led by Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Emmanuel Haligah, said the Police picked intelligence that the accused person, now convict, had established microfinance business centres in the name of KM Community Bank and Prym Capital within Suhum and its environs.

It said the convict, after establishing the business, went ahead to collect deposits from people without a licence. 

On June 30, 2023, Asante was arrested for investigations and when his offices were searched, copies of documents purported to be issued by the Bank of Ghana in the name of KM Community Bank were found and retrieved for investigations. 

Prosecutors said investigations revealed that Asante had forged the Bank of Ghana licence between April 2022 and January 2023 and had about 24 employees working as representatives within the Suhum enclave. 

It said during the period, Asante had successfully convinced about 950 persons, who made daily deposits of GHC56,000 with his business. 

The prosecution said during interrogation, Asante admitted that KM Community Bank and PRYM Capital were neither registered by the Office of the Registrar of Companies nor licensed by the Bank of Ghana to undertake deposit-taking business. 

It said Asante confessed that he forged the Bank of Ghana licence retrieved from his office.