The Executive Director of policy think tank, Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA), Mr Mensah Thompson, has said over 18,000 Ghanaians have died of hardships due to the banking sector cleanup by the Akufo-Addo-led government.

“18,000 workers of the affected cleanup exercise have died. 6,500 orphans are currently struggling to fend for themselves in the unbridled cleanup exercise sanctioned by the Akufo-Addo-led government. Many have been evicted from their homes and the sick are unable to access their cash to access healthcare,” Mr Thompson stated at a press conference.

Giving the breakdown, Mr Thompson said 4,500 direct and 2,000 indirect jobs were lost from the revocation of 16 bank licences.

He noted that an additional 4,000 direct and 3,800 indirect jobs were lost after the revocation of the licences of 23 Savings and Loan companies nationwide.

He was quick to add that 9,000 of the affected workers were currently homeless.

ASEPA said the data was collected from previous customers of these collapsed banks and financial institutions and previous employees and agents of the financial institutions

ASEPA’s study comes following renewed agitations by customers and staff of the collapsed financial institutions for the payment of their locked-up funds and severance packages, respectively.