The Akufo-Addo government 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 has said.

Dr Bawumia told Agya Owusu on Techiman-based Link89.1 FM in the Bono East Region during his recent tour of that part of Ghana 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 warning 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 institution 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.

Two weeks ago, some aggrieved customers of the gold-trading company said they deserve a bailout just like the other companies that were licensed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and collapsed with a “written letter” because their operations were contrary to their terms of licence.

According to the aggrieved customers, they deserve a bailout since Menzgold was under the regulation of SEC.