Menzgold customers are demonstrating at the forecourt of the office of Zylofon Media, one of the many businesses of Nana Appiah Mensah (NAM1), owner of the now-defunct gold-trading company.

The angry demonstrators are accusing the Akufo-Addo-led government of colluding with NAM1 to rob them of their investment.

They have threatened to vote against the NPP government if their locked-up funds are not released to them

One customer collapsed during the demonstration on Saturday, 31 October 2020.

The police were at the scene to prevent the customers from entering the Zylofon building.

Menzgold saga

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ordered the shutdown of the gold-trading firm across the country on Thursday, 12 September 2019.

It also stopped the company from taking on new investments.

SEC further stopped Menzgold from publishing or broadcasting all adverts related to its activities.

SEC indicated that upon evaluation of the documentations of Menzgold, the company did not have the licence to deal in gold-trading, citing that its operations breached Act 929 and as well, posed “a threat to unsuspecting and uninformed investors”.

SEC had further warned in a notice on Saturday, 7 September 2019, that if the company failed to comply, the Commission enforces the directive by taking “measures under the law.”

Unable to refund customers investment NAM 1 has been dragged to court.

The government says it will not use taxpayers’ money to pay depositors whose investments have been locked up in the now-defunct Menzgold Company Limited.

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia told Agya Owusu on Techiman-based Link89.1 FM in the Bono East Region during his recent tour that unlike the situation where the government rescued 4.4 million depositors whose funds got locked up in some banks and specialised deposit-taking institutions who were collapsed by their regulatory authorities over infractions and insolvency, the customers of Menzgold are not entitled to such rescue since they defied all warnings from the Bank of Ghana to do business with an unlicensed financial institution.

“Menzgold is not a licensed financial institution. We are talking about licensed financial institutions but if you set up your 419 institutions and the Bank of Ghana warned repeatedly that people should not do business with Menzgold because they were not a licensed financial institution, so, you can’t use taxpayers’ money to pay locked-up funds of an institution that is not a licensed financial institution," Dr Bawumia said.