Customers of collapsed fund management firms threaten demo
Tricia
The coalition of Aggrieved Customers of the Collapsed 53 Fund management companies have served notice that they will hit the streets on March 24 if their locked up monies are not paid.According to the customers, the government’s pledge to pay investments of customers of savings and loans should also apply to them.
They are also threatening to vote against the government on December 7 if they do not receive their locked up investments.Charles Nyame, the Public Relations Officer for the customers told the press that they expect the government to come out with a response before the 24th of March.
“We are expecting the government to come out before the 24th of March this year or we will embark on a demonstration on the streets of Accra…we have also said that if by election time our views are not addressed, we will resolve as a group with our families to vote against the government.”
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in November 2019 revoked the licenses of 53 Fund Management Companies.SEC, in a statement explained that the revocation follows the companies’ failure to “return client funds which remain locked up and in a number of cases, have even folded up their operations.”
The action was taken pursuant to Section 122 (2) (b) of the Securities Industry Act, 2019 (Act 929) which authorizes SEC to revoke the license of a market operator under some circumstances.Included in the list of the defunct companies was Black Shield Fund Management, a subsidiary of Groupe Nduom.
SEC selected branches of Consolidated Bank of Ghana Limited (CBG) to receive claims from clients who have their funds locked up at the affected companies.The banks were tasked to accept relevant documents for the validation of the investment claims.
According to SEC, the said branches serving as agents were authorized “to ascertain and validate details of investors and their investments with these institutions at the time of the revocation to facilitate the administration of the Government pay-out of a capped amount to affected investors.”
