The Aggrieved Customers of collapsed Gold Coast Fund Management Company has disclosed that its members will picket the Ministry of Finance to demand their locked-up funds.

According to the group, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has not paid its members whose funds were locked after picketing at the premises of SEC for three days in May 2023.

Speaking to Joy Business, the Convener of the group, Charles Nyame, said all efforts to get their locked up funds from the defunct Gold Coast Fund Management Company have provide futile.

He disclosed that the defunct company, which operated under the registered name, Black Shield Capital Limited had over 55,000 customers whose funds were locked up before the regulator revoked its license.

Mr. Nyame recalled that leadership of the group has tried to engage the SEC but is yet to receive favourable responses from the regulator.

“We just want our locked up money. The company was licensed before its license was revoked. We are therefore going to picket the Finance Ministry from 10^th of October to the 12^th of October 2023”, he said.

Mr. Nyame added that the group has already notified the police as previous dates have been changed upon request by the law enforcers.

He explained that since the collapse of the company, some of the customers have died out of frustration and economic hardship.

“Most of our members are old men and women, who invested in Gold Coast Fund Management. Some have even died. These were people who invested in a licensed company at the time”.

Outlining the plan for the picketing, Mr. Nyame stated that members of the group will congregate at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in the Greater Accra region, and bussed to the premises of the Ministry of Finance.

“We have decided to bus our members because most of them are old and weak. They can’t walk to the Ministry of Finance”.

He assured that the exercise will be a peaceful picketing aimed at highlighting the difficulties faced by customers whose funds were locked up.

Mr. Nyame stated that some of the members have unfortunately resorted to begging for money to survive.

Group threatens to sue government

In February 2023, some of the customers threatened to sue government over their locked-up funds.

According the group, it has been four years since their investments got locked up with the company, which was a regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

“The lock-up of our investments was mainly due to the Government’s policy of a Financial Sector Clean-up Exercise in Ghana initiated in 2018,” the Group said in a statement.

They lamented that even though affected customers were assured of receiving their funds, none of them have been called to come for their monies.

“This discriminatory act on the part of the government is in contravention of the 1992 Constitution that requires the government to treat all its nationals equally without discrimination,”

The group argued that the decision by government to take over the debt and validating customers claims with an initial payment of ¢50,000 per each investment makes the government liable to the customers on the grounds of absorption of responsibility.

They pointed out that affected depositors would have taken action to retrieve their deposit since 2018 but for the government taking over the responsibility to pay us.