We blame you for our suffering – Gold Coast customers to Akufo-Addo

Some aggrieved customers of the embattled Gold Coast Fund Management (GCFM), now Blackshield Fund Management, has accused President Nana Akufo-Addo and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government of contributing to their suffering and inability to retrieve investments from the firm, a subsidiary of Groupe Nduom, chaired by Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom.

Groupe Nduom said the government owes some of its subsidiaries some GHS2 billion, a situation that has incapacitated the company from living up to its obligations to its clients.

The government, however, disputes that figure which it puts at about GHS35 million.

At a press conference on Tuesday, 5 November 2019, the group said the government has failed to intervene in the matter and failed to honour its financial obligations to GCFM in order for the firm to advance payments to them.

On the back of a recent protest and petition on 15 October 2019, the group said: “The government, as per its usual posture, has again refused to respond to the petition submitted to its outfit. Not even acknowledgement of receipt even after several follow-ups by the leadership of this group”.

The incensed group members said: “The government of Ghana, under President Akufo-Addo, is partly to be blamed for the pains, the suffering, the mental torture, the sleepless nights and the poor living conditions of GCFM customers”.

They do not understand “the loud silence by the government on our issue”.

The group said the government has also failed to respond to their plea “to pay its indebtedness to Gold Coast Fund Management, a situation the company argues to be the direct reason for their inability to honour their obligations to the customers, which situation had led to indescribable hardship on customers and in some cases even death”.

They are, therefore, requesting the following:

1. Government should pay immediately, all the interim payment certificates (IPCs) due GCFM and thereafter compel GCFM and Dr Nduom to pay their customers.

2. Government should raise the IPCs of completed projects for payment.

3. Government must pay his indebtedness to GCFM or give comfort letters to allow GCFM raise the needed funds to pay their customers.

4. Government should terminate the appointment of Rev. Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh for failing to regulate the activities of GCFM, which has culminated in our current predicament.

5. Government should put on hold all attempts to close down and liquidate GCFM since this situation will rather worsen the already ailing plights of customers.