Customers of Menzgold Ghana Limited have accused management of the company of treating them unfairly.
This is in reaction to a supposed directive from the company for employees to go on a compulsory ten-day leave because of threats by customers to attack them.
[contextly_sidebar id=”qP2BIsuvGnGOI1SN8Q0N9WH1c7KdPVo4″]In an interview with Citi News, Chairman of a group of aggrieved customers, Timothy Binob, said customers have never posed a threat to the company’s staff despite unfair treatments meted out to them.
“Nobody has ever gone there to attack anybody, if we had wanted to be violent we would have started that long time ago. We have been loyal and stood behind Menzgold till this far, so why do they then turn around to accuse us of attacking their staff, Menzgold has never been fair to us,” he said.
In November, some aggrieved Customers of Menzgold Ghana Limited hit the streets in protest against the embattled gold dealership company’s failure to pay them their principal investments.
The demonstrators submitted petitions to the company, Parliament, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other authorities.
But the Finance Minister Ken Ofori – Atta, has stated that government will not pay customers of Menzgold their locked up investments.
Describing the situation as disturbing, Mr. Ofori Atta disclosed that the company has lots of customers from reputable state institutions such as the Ministry of Finance, Bank of Ghana and the military.
“…As I look at the Ministry of Finance and I see some people who are at the Ministry of Finance who have invested there, I look at the Bank of Ghana and I see some people who have invested there, and of course the military etc [who have invested there].”
Background
Menzgold 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 said 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.
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By: Farida Yusif | citinewsroom.com | Ghana