MenzGold - Ghana's 2018 Scandal

MenzGold is a registered gold dealing company based in Ghana that offers customers a 10% monthly return on investment (ROI) on their investments. On their website, The company is affiliated to the Swiss Gold Global in Switzerland which gives customers and potential investors some confidence in them. They've been operating in Ghana quietly for a couple of years until the later part of 2018.

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MenzGold is Ghana's first Bullion Bank, which means you can convert your fiat currency into gold and also have a share of the country's gold. They started making headlines when the Bank of Ghana (BoG) issued a warning to the general public, stating that the company wasn't licensed with the Central Bank, and so people should be wary of their dealings with them. It's however important to state that, MenzGold isn't a financial institution and they started that clearly before and after the warning by the BoG.

When issues with BoG seemed to be settling, MenzGold was asked by the Securities and Exchange Commission to suspend gold trading activities with the public because they didn't have a valid license from the commission. A lot of people were wondering why the company wasn't shut down forcefully if indeed, they were doing something illegal. MenzGold sued the SEC, challenging the suspension which they lost because the court said, MenzGold had not exhausted all dispute resolution mechanisms before rushing to court.

A lot of Ghanaian's who invested money with MenGold rushed to the various branches of the company after it was forced to shutdown and demanded their monies. It took the timely intervention of security forces to protect lives and properties as the crowd grew violent at a point. Since then, a lot of demonstrations have been witnessed with aggrieved customers asking the government to step in and help them get their monies. The Government has however advised the aggrieved customers to take legal action against the company if the wish to get their monies back.

On Thursday, Minister for Information issued a statement saying the government will employ the powers of the State to ensure he law takes it;s course, but they won't use taxpayers' monies to refund aggrieved customers. One aggrieved customer said she had deposited over GHc 700,000 ($142,857) with the company, and all she wants is her money back. Owner of MenzGold has also stated that, there isn't enough money to payback all the customers. Time will tell how this issue is resolved.

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