Some members of the Aggrieved Customers of Blackshield formerly Gold Coast Securities, for the second time this week picketed at the Ministry of Finance to demand for the payment of their locked up funds.
Numbering about 61, the group held placards with inscriptions such as “Where is the GH¢5.5 billion approved by Parliament to pay us,” “Our locked fund is our children’s school fees,” “Mr President, you haven’t been told the truth about the payment,” “Pensioners are dying, pay us our money,” “Investing in local securities market is not a crime, pay us our money.”
The other inscriptions are “Gold Coast Fund was solvent until Akufo-Addo touched it,” “Ken Ofori-Atta was a customer of Gold Coast Fund,” “Mr President you said you paid all depositors when?” “Over 800 pensioners are dead due to locked up funds,” ” Nana Addo, please keep to your word.”
The members of the Aggrieved Customers of Blackshield on Tuesday, September 10 began picketing at the Ministry of Finance to impress on government to pay them their locked up funds.
When the Ghanaian Times visited the Ministry of Finance yesterday in the morning, this reporter heard some of the aggrieved customers chanting “we need our money, this is not IMF money, it is our own money, pay us our money, we need it.”
In an interview with one of the leaders of the Aggrieved Customers of Blackshield, Mrs Rosemond Grunitzky, she said about 61,000 customers of Blackshield have had funds locked up since the government embarked on the banking sector clean-up in 2018.
The locked up funds in Blackshield, she said stood at more than GH¢5 billion.
Mrs Grunitzky said all the members have done their validation, but since 2018 they had not been paid.
“Life has become difficult for us, we can’t pay for our medical bills and the school fees of our wards,” she stated.
According to her, some of the members of the Aggrieved Customers of Blackshield had died because they did not have money to cater for their health.
Mrs Grunitzky said the members of the group would continue to picket at the Ministry until they were paid their money.
Meanwhile the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a press statement copied to the Ghanaian Times in Accra yesterday, explained that the full bailout for Blackshield was pending, because the liquidation petition was still pending in court and thus stalling Government’s full bailout programme for the affected clients.
It said the Blackshield/Gold Coast had filed applications at various courts to challenge the SEC’s decision to revoke its license.
“The unfortunate consequence of this action is that the Official Liquidator cannot complete the liquidation process, which has subsequently impacted Government’s ability to roll-out the bailout programme to the remaining affected customers of Blackshield/ Gold Coast. It is evident that a change in the posture of Blackshield/ Gold Coast to the liquidation petition is key to speeding up the process,” the SEC said.
SEC said government had demonstrated commitment to the bailout programme as evidenced in the partial bailout which had benefitted customers of Blackshield/Gold Coast.
“Even as we empathise with the very difficult conditions of clients affected by the legal hold-up, SEC wishes to appeal for calm and encourage affected clients to rely only on information provided by the SEC and the Official Liquidator. Affected investors or members of the general public are encouraged to contact the SEC via its toll-free line number: 0800100065 or email,” SEC said.
BY KINGSLEY ASARE
