Financial sector clean-up: 900 people dead, pay us by June 30 - GCFM customers to government

Customers of Gold Coast Fund Management have said government has up to June 30, 2024, to pay them their locked-up investments with all interests due them.

Convener of the group, Charles Nyame, in an interview with Citi News noted that over 900 customers have lost their lives due to their inability to access their funds to seek medical attention.

He also called out the Head of the Economic Management Team, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, for ignoring their plights despite several attempts by customers to retrieve their locked-up investments from government.

"Dr. Bawumia, they call you an economic hero, but what kind of hero ignores the cry of his people? We trusted the system and invested our hard-earned money for a secure future but here we are only to be cast aside like dead news. They dangle the public toilet in front of us like some kind of charity,” Charles Nyame lamented.

He further said, “With all due respect Your Excellency, we are not fools. We see through the empty promises. In this year’s election, our votes would not be a choice, it will be a scream born from the death of despair fuelled by years of neglect. We will not be silenced by apathy any more. June 30th is the deadline, give us back our money, every single cedi with interest. We have over 900 of our people, those are the ones that we have the records of their obituaries, they are dead and gone.”

The Gold Coast Fund Management was a registered fund management company regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Ghana.

According to a petition by some customers of Blackshield Capital Limited, formerly Gold Coast Management, the funds of the petitioners were locked-up in the defunct Gold Coast Fund Management following government's financial sector clean-up exercise in 2018.

After the clean-up exercise, the petitioners submitted and validated their claims through the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

The Regulator [SEC] budgeted an amount of GH¢8 billion for total payment of the customers of all the 47 defunct fund management companies.

Parliament subsequently approved the funds for the financial sector clean-up exercise and the Finance Minister publicly reported that he had completed the exercise and expended some GH¢25 billion in that regard.

Government’s accounting showed that the sum included the GH¢8.6 billion meant to pay claims of investors in the 47 defunct fund management companies including Gold Coast Fund Management.

Unfortunately, individual members of the petitioners’ association, whose investment exceeded GH¢50,000.00 had not been paid their monies since 2018.

SA/MA

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