Members of the Coalition of Aggrieved Customers of Menzgold are currently embarking on a demonstration exercise over their locked-up funds.
The coalition is expected to present a petition to President Akufo-Addo at the Jubilee House today, September 12, 2022. The protest is also to mark four years since the government closed down the operations of the gold dealership firm, Menzgold.
The spokesperson of the group, Fred Forson who spoke in an interview said all efforts to retrieve their monies have proven futile.
“We will converge at 9 am at the Customs traffic light. From there, we will do a walk through the Ministries to the Black Stars Square. There, we shall have a press briefing. At 11 am, we will present our petition. It is exactly four years since Menzgold was collapsed and for four years, we have done whatever we could but it appears there are no results. So this time around, we want to petition the president for a presidential intervention,” Citinewsroom quoted Fred Forson.
On September 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) directed gold trading firm Menzgold Ghana Limited to shut down its investment operations with immediate effect for contravening the Securities Industry Act, 2016 (Act 929). The SEC order also warned Menzgold to halt advertising of their investment business and desist from creating new contracts with depositors.
According to a letter addressed to the Menzgold CEO, Nana Appiah Mensah by the SEC investigations conducted by the regulator, they found out that Menzgold's business which involves the purchase/deposit of gold from the public and contracts issued with guaranteed returns with clients is a capital market activity which cannot be conducted without a valid license issued by the SEC.
Menzgold, however, adhered to this direction. Meanwhile, the Finance Minister has said the government won’t pay Menzgold customers’ locked up cash.
According to him, people who invested their monies in Menzgold did that at their own peril.
“As we try to clean up the financial services center, I know the SEC has come down hard, strong and justifiably on Menzgold. But the issue with a company of Menzgold…it’s become an issue of greed as a people and our own behaviour when we are so clear as educated as we might be that when we went there, there was no license.
“I think it is not in the place of government to fund or get your money back for you. It was an obvious trap that you went into. Maybe we as an industry should also push the whole issue of education and empowerment so that people do not fall prey to that,” the finance minister said at a ceremony to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
NYA/DO
File photo: Menzgold customer