Customers at the frontage of Menzgold Head Office at East Legon
Hundreds of people believed to be customers of the beleaguered Menzgold Gold Dealership firm, yesterday, thronged the head office in East Legon, Accra, to demand their investments.
The customers, who arrived at the premises of the company in the early hours of Friday, said they were told that business activities would commence at 1:30pm.
They patiently waited up to about 2pm when some people from the firm came out to give them withdrawal slips to fill.
After filling and submitting the forms, nobody told the customers anything, so they got furious and threatened to force their way into the office.
Some security personnel had to intervene to prevent what would have been a nasty incident.
Some customers claimed the Dzorwulu Branch of Menzgold was paying its customers and did not see why the head office could not do same.
Tempers flared as they screamed and vowed to vehemently oppose what they described as “smart moves to keep their money.”
This compelled staff of Menzgold to come out to inform the teeming customers that they were going to call out names of persons who had submitted their withdrawal slips in groups of 10.
DAILY GUIDE spotted six armed policemen and two men in military uniforms who were apparently brought there to maintain law and order.
However, it turned out that they were also there to demand their investments.
In the ensuing heat, the security men helped to calm tempers, but the customers were not told why they couldn’t get their monies.
While some said the company had gone bankrupt, others suggested Nana Appiah Mensah, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Menzgold had defrauded them.
Some alleged the CEO ‘deliberately’ sued Bank of Ghana (BoG) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ostensibly to buy more time in paying their dividends.
According to staff of Menzgold, persons eligible to receive their dividends were those who reached agreements with the firm before September 12, i.e. the day the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) instructed them to halt operations.
However, customers were not allowed to withdraw their capital or terminate the contracts/agreements with Menzgold.
There were posters at some vantage points at the head office which indicated when customers were to come for their dividends.
Menzgold’s payment of extra values on its customers gold deposits has been in limbo since the company had issues with the regulators.
In an interview with the media on Tuesday in Accra, SEC’s Deputy Director-General, Paul Ababio, explained that the Commission has not stopped Menzgold from paying dividends to existing clients on the gold vault market investment.
According to Mr. Ababio, SEC’s directive was for Menzgold Ghana Limited “to halt doing new business.”
However, Menzgold has argued that it is unable to pay dividends due to the suspension of its operations by SEC.
A statement issued by its management, Menzgold Ghana Limited explained that “the gold collectibles offered for trade by patrons of our gold vault market product are subjected to our quality controls and traded for profit which is shared as extra value with the product owner or trader.”
Menzgold Ghana pointed out that “any act, order or instruction therefore, designed, or decreed to forbid Menzgold from trading makes it impossible to generate any revenue whatsoever out of which extra values are charged and paid to those entitled.”
According to the statement, “Thought provoking as these ambiguities on the part of SEC may be, Menzgold Ghana is still committed to ensuring that its business operations return to normalcy as soon as possible, as the firm is deeply saddened by the social and economic inconveniences this decision and directive of the SEC has caused our customers and the organization.”
It would be recalled that SEC ordered Menzgold Ghana Limited to stop trading in gold collectibles in a letter dated September 7, 2018.
The Commission revealed that the aspect of Menzgold’s business, which involves the purchase or deposit of gold collectibles from the public and contracts issued with guaranteed returns with clients, is a capital markets activity (issuance of gold-backed depository notes to the public) under Act 929 without a valid licence issued by SEC contrary to Section 109 of Act 929 with consequences under section 206 (1) of the same act.”
The company was, however, allowed to continue its “other businesses of assaying, purchasing gold from small-scale miners and export of gold.”
BY NII ADJEI MENSAHFIO