Some aggrieved customers of Gold Coast Fund Management took to the streets in the Ashanti region Tuesday to protest their locked up funds with the firm.
The affected customers match through the principal streets of the regional capital Kumasi as they accuse government of not doing enough to recover their investments.
The over 200 customers clad in red bands held placards with several inscriptions presented a petition to President Akufo-Addo through the Ashanti Regional Minister for further action.
Payment
The President of Gold Coast
Fund Management, Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom has said the company has paid nearly GHS60
million to aggrieved customers and payment continues.
Dr Nduom’s comment comes on the heels of threats
a few weeks ago by customers in the Ashanti region to hit the streets within
five days if the government does not intervene to get their locked-up funds
released to them.
Members of the Coalition of Aggrieved Customers
of Gold Coast Fund Management (GCFM) in a statement said Dr Nduom and his GCFM
company have “deliberately decided to refuse to pay us back our fixed deposit
investments which we have with them even though the said investments have
matured since June last year and beyond.”
The group said their members, made up of
pensioners, are unable to take care of their basic needs such as medical bills
and other basic essentials while other members have lost their loved ones
because they were unable to take care of certain basic medical needs in very
critical times.
Members of the coalition also alleged that Dr
Nduom has loaned out their investment to his GN Bank branches in Ghana as well
as those in other African countries and Chicago, USA.
The coalition said: “This act, we believe,
amounts to a conflict of interest situation by Dr Nduom”, adding that:
“Unfortunately, the regulators have decided to turn a blind eye to such a major
violation”.
“We are, therefore, giving a five-day deadline
to the government of Ghana to swiftly address our grievances, failure of which
we will hit the streets of Kumasi in a massive demonstration to protest against
this grave injustice that we face from Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom and his GCFM
Company,” the statement added.
Responding to the aggrieved customers, Dr Nduom
in a Facebook post on Friday, 22 February 2019 said “Gold Coast Fund Management
remains open for business, engages customers daily and is working with its
regulator to find better solutions to meet the needs of its customers. Even
more important, Management is mobilising funds to meet the needs of pensioners,
urgent situations and settle arrears due from transactions processed last
year.”
Below is the full Facebook post:
These are the facts:
2015 621,945,072.74
2016 609,894.95
2017 1,347,170,495.25
2018 1,430,522,135.99
What do these numbers mean? These are amounts not in old but new Ghana Cedis that Gold Coast Fund Management has paid back to its customers in recent years. During this challenging period, the company has paid nearly 60 million Ghana Cedis to customers and this continues. With 100,000 retail customers, this investment company has assured customers about plans to prudently manage investments it has made and also what it is doing to redeem funds from ongoing projects and other companies it has placed funds with. Gold Coast Fund Management remains open for business, engages customers daily and is working with its regulator to find better solutions to meet the needs of its customers. Even more important, Management is mobilizing funds to meet the needs of pensioners, urgent situations and settle arrears due from transactions processed last year.
These are the facts.
If you are a GCFM customer and you want answers, please contact: options@gcfmghana.com. A representative will respond to you and give you the facts.
Source: Daily Mail GH
Email Daily Mail GH: stories@dailymailgh.com or
Whatsapp: +233(0)509928122
