Customers of gold dealership Company, Menzgold, are angry over the failure of the company to honour its promise of resuming the payment of matured returns today, Wednesday, October 3, 2018.
Menzgold halted the payment of the returns on Tuesday with the excuse of revising the schedule for payment.
However, customers who thronged the various branches of the company were asked to return on Friday for their money.
Citi News’ Hanson Agyeman, who was at the Dzorwulu Branch of Menzgold, reported that the customers were disappointed by the move.
“Some of the customers said they were angry because Menzgold has not given them accurate information and has been tossing them instead. They questioned why officials of Menzgold will keep changing the date for collection of their monies,” he added.
Menzgold vs. SEC
Menzgold Ghana Limited was asked to suspend its gold trading operations with the public by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
According to the SEC, Menzgold has been dealing in the purchase and deposit of gold collectibles from the public and issuing contracts with guaranteed returns with clients, without a valid license from the Commission.
This, the SEC says, is in contravention of “section 109 of Act 929 with consequences under section 2016 (I) of the same Act.”
The company was however cleared to continue its “other businesses of assaying, purchasing gold from small-scale miners and export of gold.”
Although the company was adamant at first, it subsequently complied with the directive.
It subsequently extended the suspension following the delay in resolving its issues with SEC.
We can’t pay dividends due to SEC’s action – Menzgold
Menzgold subsequently said it is unable to pay its customers matured dividends on their gold investments due to the action that was taken against it by the SEC.
“The gold collectibles offered for trade by patrons of our gold vault market product are subject to our quality controls and traded for profit which is shared as an extra value with the product owner or trader. 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,” Menzgold said in a statement dated September 25, 2018.
But the SEC did not agree with Menzgold’s position, saying its action did not stop them from paying customers dividends on already existing investments.
‘We’re still not getting vital information from Menzgold’ – SEC
The SEC has indicated that it is yet to receive adequate information from Menzgold after it ordered the suspension of its gold trading business.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Wednesday, Paul Ababio, Deputy Director-General at SEC, said that the flow of information from the gold dealership firm to enable the two parties to reach a favourable consensus has not been smooth.
“We may have finished with our investigation but the actual implementation of the results of that investigation is also subject to their willingness to cooperate because we requested for information in August; we have sat with their lawyers with a few back and forth, and we still haven’t received information from them. So if we have the information, one might say within a matter of weeks we should have some closure; then the question now becomes the action items arriving from that determination,” he added.
Stay off our business; Menzgold sues BoG, SEC
Menzgold last week sued the SEC and the Bank of Ghana seeking from the court an order directing the two institutions to stop interfering in its business.
Menzgold also asked the court to stop the Bank of Ghana and the SEC from publishing what it described as “derogatory notices” against its business.
“An order of perpetual injunction to restrain the Bank of Ghana and Securities and Exchange Commission, its officers, servants, and agents from interfering with Menzgold’s business activities or further acts of disobedience and non-compliance with the law by publishing any derogatory notices.”
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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citinewsroom.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin
The post Menzgold customers unhappy over delayed payments appeared first on Citi Newsroom.
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