Felix Mantey — Director of Communications, PPP
Felix Mantey — Director of Communications, PPP

PPP wants govt to pay BlackShield Fund customers

The Progressive People’s Party (PPP) has reiterated its appeal to the government and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to pay all affected customers of the BlackShield/Gold Coast Fund Management Company (GCFM) with immediate effect.

In November 2019, the government, through the SEC, revoked the licence of GCFM. Before the revocation, GCFM presented a proposal to the government to allow the company to repay all affected customers within a three-year period under a new fund management arrangement called Cardinal Fund.

The proposal by the owners and managers of GCFM/BlackShield was flatly rejected and the government promised to repay the affected customers after the revocation.

Speaking to the Daily Graphic, the Director of Communications of the PPP, Felix Mantey, said it was shocking that after three years of the revocation, government has refused to pay the affected customers and there are continuous agitations for the repayment of locked up funds.

“We are also curious and asking the government of the whereabouts of the GH¢ 3.1 billion and GH¢5.5 billion funds approved by Parliament in the 2020 and 2021 budgets respectively for the payment of customers of all affected fund management companies as bailout?” he said.

“Remember there were no conditions attached to this bailout for the payment of the affected customers,” he added.

Mr Mantey said it was based on the approved funds that the Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Rev. Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh stated categorically in a press release on September 2, 2020 that ‘the SEC reiterates the fact that there is no plan to exclude any group of customers, and as indicated in our last press release, the roll-out of the government’s bailout will be done in phases’.

Explanation

The PPP, therefore, demanded an explanation as to what has happened to the said arrangement as highlighted by the SEC Director General.

“We believe the customers deserve better in this arrangement, so the government should urgently fulfil its pledge by paying the affected customers because our taxes have been collected for this purpose,” he said

He said there was no excuse for the government to wait for a liquidation order for BlackShield/Gold Coast assets before paying the customers.

He also mentioned that under a different arrangement after the financial sector clean-up, owners of the banks are in court challenging the decision of the Bank of Ghana and the Receiver for the revocation of their licences.

According to him, agreements signed by customers of affected fund management companies whose funds were validated shows that they are no longer customers of GCFM/BlackShield but are customers of a different fund manager approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) called the Amalgamated Fund, managed by the Ghana Commercial Bank Ltd (GCB) which guarantees payment for the affected customers.

Worrying

Mr Mantey said more worrying was the fact that there has been a general acceptance and public declaration by the President, the Vice-President, the Minister of Finance, the Ministers of Works and Housing, as well as the Roads and Highways that indigenous Ghanaian contractors who acquired loans from the affected fund management companies were owed significant sums of money.

He accused the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, of being selective in determining which contractors are paid and which ones should not be paid and directing funds to financial institutions to pay some contractors bypassing the original lenders with impunity.

“This has the potential of denying the original lenders funds due them and likely to cause huge judgement debts and financial loss to the state,” he said.

The PPP, therefore, called on the government to do the needful by paying investors their monies and save the suffering customers of the fund management companies.

Writer’s email: [email protected]

Connect With Us : 0242202447 | 0551484843 | 0266361755 | 059 199 7513 |