Hasten Payment Of Our Locked-up Cash – Customers Of Aggrieved Fund Managers

The Coalition of Aggrieved Customers of Collapsed Fund management companies is appealing to the government to fast-track the process for the payment of their locked up cash.

Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, Joseph Aryee, an executive of the Coalition, said this will help save the lives of many customers currently struggling to survive.

“All that we are saying is that we beg the government, issues about economic rights are human rights issues. People are dying. For God's sake, we need our monies. This is the bottom line: this long English won't take us anywhere.”

Another aggrieved customer, Gilbert Arthur, on the same show, urged government to be mindful of the fact that some of the customers of the collapsed fund management companies invested their pension funds in such firms.

“Government should get something for the aged and the widows. It should give a bailout to take care of the individuals. We are tired of waiting for the court to settle the outstanding issues. Otherwise, we will be lying in the streets dead. We love you Nana Akufo-Addo but tnough of the long talk, we are Ghanaians, you want us to vote fine, but we need to be alive to vote, just get some monies and settle us. The court should know it is dealing with the lives of people. We can't wait for the legal vacation, set up a special court to settle this issue for us,” he pleaded.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revoked the licences of some 53 fund management companies in November 2019.

Some of the companies, after being unsatisfied with the internal mechanisms put in place by the SEC to have their grievances addressed, dragged the commission to court.

Customers of the companies have since 2019 struggled to access their investments.

The SEC recently announced that government had agreed to offer a bailout package for the affected customers but would do so in phases.

Earlier suggestions were that customers of Blackshield Capital Limited and three other firms would not benefit from the bailout package. This compelled them to picket at the premises of the Ministry of Finance earlier in the week.

The SEC in a statement on Wednesday, September 2, 2020, subsequently clarified that its earlier statement announcing the bailout package had been misinterpreted since no customer will be left out.

However, affected customers think it’s high time the government puts aside the technicalities and ensure that their funds are settled as soon as possible.

— citinewsroom