General News of Saturday, 20 October 2018

Source: ghananewsagency.org

Aggrieved customers of Menzgold in Western Region call for locked up cash

The aggrieved customers have given Menzgold four weeks to pay their principal investments The aggrieved customers have given Menzgold four weeks to pay their principal investments

Hundreds of customers of Menzgold Ghana Limited branch in Tarkwa of the Western Region have warned the management of the gold trading company to pay their principal investments within four weeks.

According to the customers, they would not accept the three months stipulated by the company as they had failed woefully in their promise of payment scheduled.

Addressing the media at a News conference in Tarkwa, Mr Clement Cliton Blay, coordinator of the aggrieved customers of Tarkwa Menzgold, hinted that over 80,000 people have been affected in the Western Region.

He said most of them were from Tarkwa Nsueam, Prestea Huni/Valley, Ahanta West, Takoradi, Nzema and beyond.

Mr Blay stated that investors throughout the country lost absolute trust in the management of Menzgold as they had consistently failed to honour every pledge they communicated to investors.

The Co-ordinator said the legal action taken by the gold trading firm was just a deliberate attempt to wipe away time. “Customers will not accept any further smart acts of diversion and unnecessary Social media drama" he indicated.

He therefore, called on the government to intervene as soon as possible as this matter could cause serious implications on the nation's security, safety, health and the economy as a whole.

Naa Mohammed Samburo II, a former staff of Goldfields and client of Menzgold, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) after the News conference that for the past four months, customers of Menzgold had gone through hardships as they had invested their entire livelihood with them.

According to him, he was dismissed by his employers and how to retrieve his one million Ghana cedis with the dividend had become a challenge.

Naa Samburo bemoaned that he cannot pay his ward's fees, rent and utilities bills.

"Tarkwa has become a ghost town, a lot of people are in-doors because they are owing and their debtors are chasing them everywhere" he pointed out.

He asked the Chief Executive Officer of Menzgold Ghana, Nana Appiah Mensah alias NAM 1 to let the monies reflect in their respective bank accounts else they would come after him and further appealed to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Government and Bank of Ghana (BoG) to step in to find amicable solution to the problem.

The gold trading firm’s activities came to a standstill on September 13, 2018, following a directive from the BoG.