NDK FINANCIAL SERVICES LIMITED vs PAYTELL COMPANY LIMITED & 2 ORS.

This is a Ruling for an Order directed at Defendants/Respondents (Respondent) and XDS Data Ghana Limited (the Interested Party) to remove wrong credit report posted on the record of the Respondent pursuant to the inherent Jurisdiction of this Court.

I have read through the Motion Paper, Affidavit in Support and attached Exhibits. I have also read through the Affidavit in Opposition as well as the attached Exhibits. Careful consideration has been given to the Written Submissions filed by Counsel for Respondents in opposition to the instant Application.

At the time of writing this Ruling, Counsel for Applicant had not complied with the Court’s Order to file his Written Submission.

As rightly submitted by Counsel for Respondents, the main issue for determination is whether or not Respondent and XDS Data Ghana have posted a wrong credit report on Applicant’s record so as to warrant the Court ordering them to remove same.

THE LAWS GOVERNING THE INSTANT APPLICATION

Section 24 (1) and (2) (a) and (b) of the Credit Reporting Act, 2007 (Act 726) states as follows:

A data provider which is a Financial Institution “Submissions of Information to Credit Bureau 24 (1) shall submit information to Licensed Credit Bureau in respect of a Credit Agreement with the Financial Institution.

The Subsection 2 indicates the information to be provided as the amount of the loan granted by the financial institution and the outstanding loans including contingent liabilities extended the person by the Financial Institution.

Section 26 of Act 726 provides that the Data Provider (the Financial Institution) shall not report any of the information specified under Section 24 to a Licensed Credit Bureau unless prior consent of the Borrow has been obtained by the Financial Institution for submission of the information to the Credit Bureau.

The combined effect of these provisions is that Respondent a Financial Institution has a Statutory Duty to report to a Licensed Credit Bureau (XDS Data Ghana) information regarding, the outstanding loans and contingent liabilities extended to Applicant with Applicant’s consent.

From Exhibit “RA2” especially Clause 20, it is clear Applicant consented to the submission of information regarding the loan facility extended to it by Respondent to a Licensed Credit Bureau which in this case is XDS Data Ghana.

As per Exhibits “RA1” and “RA2”, Respondent granted Applicant a loan facility of One Million, Five Hundred Thousand Ghana Cedis (GH¢1,500,000.00) u