The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has said it will be keeping a close eye on Menzgold Company Limited’s online ventures.
Menzgold Ghana is set to launch an online gold store, a buying and selling market platform, known as Menzgold Global Market on Monday.
[contextly_sidebar id=”XbarbizlbsMXQwuj21UyzaAk7l6KsUbq”]While it remains unclear how the company will be operating online, the SEC said it will intervene if it determines Menzgold is working within its purview.
“We have also picked signals in public on the issue about an online business. We are monitoring. As long as it offends our legal or regulatory regime, we will come into play,” the Head of Legal and Enforcement at SEC, Nii Oman Badoo said at a press soirée.
“As long as that platform falls within the regulatory regime of the SEC, the SEC will act,” he also stated.
Mr. Badoo said the SEC has limited information at the moment and will be working to get a clear picture of Menzgold’s operations.
“For now, it is very limited information that they have launched an online platform so when such information comes, we have an investigation team; we will investigate if there is a platform like that and we will look at the features of the platform. Once it falls within an activity that must be regulated within Act 129, the SEC will advise itself. If it doesn’t fall within our regime, we will not say anything.”
Menzgold said its platform will see traders on the “Global Vault Market,” an offline gold market, being migrated onto the global online market at a fee.
This is geared towards keeping their gold buying and selling business active online, to forestall any payment impediments in the subsequent months.
Background
Menzgold was asked to suspend its gold trading operations with the public by the 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 said this was 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.”
Despite initial protests, Menzgold complied with the directive. It has however failed to fully pay its numerous aggrieved customers the value on their gold deposits as well as their entire investments.
As a result of this, the suspicion that the company was operating a scam has heightened.
The Chief Executive Officer of Menzgold Ghana Limited, Nana Appiah Mensah, popularly known as NAM 1, has assured customers of the embattled company that Menzgold will not collapse.
He, however, did not indicate when the thousands of their stranded customers will get the value on their gold or be given their entire investments.
“I believe that with every issue, dialogue can resolve it. We are all Ghanaians, and we are working for Ghanaians in good faith. We have hopes that this issue will end peacefully and all stakeholders will help us.”
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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa & Philip Nii Lartey | citinewsroom.com | Ghana
Follow @delalibessa
