Govt bailout fund cannot include Menzgold – SEC

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has rejected the request by the Coalition of Aggrieved Customers of Menzgold (CACM) for the government of Ghana to include them in the bailout package established to pay locked up funds of depositors of collapsed financial companies.

According to the SEC, the CACM cannot be included in the bailout fund because “the target of the bailout is clearly defined and does not cover Menzgold customers”.

“The SEC is implementing the bailout provided for in the Mid-Year Review of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government of Ghana and Supplementary Estimates for the 2020 Financial Year. Section 239 of the Budget Statement approved by the Parliament was very specific,” the letter from SEC reads.

It further explained that Menzgold was not an asset management company under SEC’s modulation.

“The SEC is implementing the bailout provided for in the Mid-Year Review of the budget statement and Economic Policy of the Government of Ghana and Supplementary Estimate for the 2020 Financial Year. Section 239 of the Budget Statement approved by Parliament was very specific.” The letter, which was signed by the Director-General of the SEC, Reverend Daniel Ogbamey Tetteh said.

The collision has been calling on the government of Ghana to include them in the bailout fund when it was announced a week ago that clients of collapsed fund management companies will start receiving their locked up funds before the end of the year.

The decision to pay these persons followed a relief granted by the Official Liquidator, the Registrar General, to liquidate 22 fund management companies (FMCs) whose licences were revoked by the SEC in November 2019.

But CACM claims its members have been subjected to “suffering and unbearable hardships” since the company’s shut down in 2018.