Menzgold suspends payment of dividends again

Troubled gold dealership firm, Menzgold Ghana has suspended the payment of dividends, over an allegation of an attack on some of its staff by customers.

The offices of the company were closed on Friday and customers who went there hoping to claim their matured dividends were left disappointed.

The company resumed the payment of dividends on September 28, 2018 following the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) clarification that it has only asked it to suspend signing new contracts and has not asked it to stop paying those who already have an ongoing contract with them.

On Friday September 28 and Monday October 1, 2018 some customers received payment and the rest were subsequently provided with a payment schedule.

However, according to Nii Armah Amarteifio, Deputy Head of Communications of company, the offices of the company have been closed to customers because "yesterday [Thursday] in the evening, we were in a meeting when we started having information from the various branches that some of our staff members have been attacked by customers And based on that we now decided that if we have to do business or operate today the plan that most customers have had to attack us will not be favourable that is why we decide to shut down today and not operate."

According to him, Menzgold was currently engaging with various stakeholders including the Police, Parliament, the military and the leadership of some of their customers to decide on a date to resume payments.

"We are going to meet and engage them, then we can tell when we will resume the payment of dividends... when we reach an agreement, we will come out with a communique on when we will start paying," Nii Amarteifio said.

Mr Amarteifio disclosed that the troubled firm had made 'extra value' payments to their customers on Friday, September 28 and Monday, October 1 as scheduled but admitted that not all customers due returns were paid.

He said this resulted in a meeting with the leadership of the customers of Menzgold who expressed reservations about the schedule and asked for a review.

Mr Amarteifioo said: "...We promised paying extra value today because if you could recall when we resumed on the 28th of September we came out with a schedule to pay all of our clients their extra value. What happened is that Friday we paid but unfortunately, we couldn't pay everybody that was due on Friday, so we moved it to Monday to continue payment.

"On Monday, indeed we paid some but we couldn't pay everybody until later in the evening when we had a meeting with the leadership of the customers of Menzgold and they expressed some kind of reservations in terms of the schedule that we brought out which according to them is inconveniencing some of their members".

He said Menzgold, reviewed the schedule and come out with a plan to effect payments today only to receive intelligence that their staff were likely to be attacked.

Scheduled payments

Menzgold last Thursday released a scheduled payment plan to customers whose extra values had accrued before the company was ordered by SEC to shut down its operations.

The company also announced that due to the shutdown, it was not in the position to process any termination of the contract that it had with its clients.

A notice pasted on the premises of the company also detailed the specific date customers could come for their extra values, which had accrued from August 5-September 12, 2018.

Legal action

Meanwhile, Menzgold has dragged SEC and the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to court with a case that the two regulators were engaging in activities “harmful” to its operations.

In a suit filed at the Accra High Court, the company wants, among other reliefs, a declaration from the court that its activities do not fall under the scope of the BoG or the SEC’s regulations.

Other reliefs include “an order of perpetual injunction to restrain the BoG and the SEC from interfering with its business activities or further acts by publishing any derogatory notices’’.