David Ampofo speaking to journalists
Aggrieved customers of Gold Coast Fund Management (GCFM) and GN Savings & Loans, all subsidiaries of Groupe Nduom (GN), have appealed to government to settle its debt to the group to enable it pay them.
The customers, whose investments are locked up with Gold Coast Fund Management (GCFM) and GN Savings and Loans, formerly GN Bank, yesterday indicated that government purportedly owes the group an amount of GH?2 billion.
The over 6,000 customers under the Concerned Gold Coast Fund Management Customers have appealed to the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to investigate how GN Savings & Loans managed depositors’ funds, among others.
It also asked GCFM to reconcile statements of account, certificate of investments and accrued interest to be paid to customers.
Speaking at a press briefing in Accra, organising secretary of the group, Dr Richard Turkson, appealed to the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) to investigate and inform the public about the situation at GCFM.
He said the two defaulting companies have not adhered to the agreement signed with customers on how payments should be made.
According to him, some customers received double payments to the detriment of others who received nothing.
“Even though a
temporary payment plan was instituted, payments have been slow, dates have been
missed and the amounts paid are insignificant in relation to the amount
owed.”
Explaining further, Dr Turkson said he was fined on two occasions for providing dud cheques from the fund management company.
He, therefore, threatened to take legal action against the company if it fails to honour cheques issued to vulnerable customers.
‘Pretty soon, I will go to the police. It’s a serious matter and I am going to be a citizen and take them up,” he said.
Meanwhile, chairman of the group, David Ampoful, has attributed the problems to the failure of SEC to perform its oversight duty of monitoring the solvency of licence holders.
“We are in this mess because of SEC. Gold Coast is more of a collateral damage or culprit but SEC is the reason,” he said.
He added that the aggrieved customers should march to Parliament since the group has already sent petitions to Parliament and has not received feedback.
“Menzgold wasn’t licensed by BoG, it wasn’t licensed by SEC, so if they have the effrontery to be demonstrating, then we have a better case,” he said.
By Issah Mohammed