Mahama Ayariga petitions Parliament over govt’s failure to settle Gold Coast Fund customers

Member of Parliament for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga, has petitioned Parliament to look into the government’s failure to release funds to defunct Gold Coast Fund Management (GCFM) customers.

The government is yet to release money to 61,000 customers of Blackshield Capital Limited, defunct Gold Coast Fund Management, after parliamentary approval.

The MP presented the petition on behalf of Charles Nyame (convenor), Bernard Agyekum, Nathaniel Mensah, David Opoku, and Rosemond Mensah Grunitzky, who are members of a group known as Aggrieved Customers of defunct Gold Coast Fund Management.

He wants the House to “investigate and establish what has accounted for the Government’s failure to pay the customers of the defunct Gold Coast Fund Management” and as well compel “the Government to pay the customers of the defunct Gold Coast Fund Management their investments in the fund since Parliament approved the budget.”

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

The funds of the petitioners, valued at about GH¢5 billion, were locked up in the defunct Gold Coast Fund Management following the decision of the Government of Ghana through the Ministry of Finance to carry out a financial sector clean-up exercise initiated in 2018.

Following the financial sector clean-up exercise, the petitioners successfully submitted and validated their claims through Price Waterhouse and Coppers (PWC).

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

Parliament approved funds for the Financial Sector Clean-up Exercise, and the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning publicly reported that he has completed the exercise and has expended Ghc25 billion in this regard.

Government’s accounting showed that this sum included the Ghc8.6 billion meant to pay claims of investors in the 47 defunct fund management companies, including Gold Coast Fund Management.

In his petition, Mr. Ayariga noted that individual members of the petitioners’ association whose investment exceeded GH¢50,000 have not been paid the remainder of their money “because the government paid only GH¢50,000.00 to everyone owed in 2020.

“Many members of the petitioners’ association had gone on pension and invested all their retirement benefits in the fund and have consequently been rendered destitute and many have died not being able to afford critically needed medical care,” he asserted.

Meanwhile, the aggrieved customers of Gold Coast Fund Management are set to stage a protest at the Ministry of Finance on November 28, 2023, over delayed funds from the defunct company.

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