Menzgold is Duly Licensed – PMMC Undermining our Reputation

Lawyers for gold trading company Menzgold have rejected claims by the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) that the company’s licence has been revoked.

It follows ongoing disagreements between Menzgold and the Bank of Ghana over its operations.

Managing Director of PMMC Opare Hammond is claiming Menzgold is not licensed to buy and sell gold as suggested by the company.

According to him, Menzgold earlier license granted by the PMMC in 2014 has long been revoked.

“The Minerals Commission would usually give you the license and there is a small clause that says ‘you buy gold for export’ and I don’t know if that is what they[Menzgold] are relying on to do this. If that is what they are relying on, then they are doing the wrong thing. One is supposed to buy and package the raw gold before exporting it,” the PMMC’s boss told Accra-based Joy FM.

According to him, the Association of Gold Exporters of Ghana took up an arbitration against the Bank of Ghana and the PMMC and it was that the arbitrator “held that the parties have agreed that the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources shall then nominate the PMMC as the government’s independent at-sale-laboratory.”

“So immediately this occurred in 2015 there was no need to renew the license with the PMMC,” Lawyer Akuffo told Starr News’ Kwaku Obeng Adjei Thursday, August 9.

“Subsequently,” he continued “we moved on to the Minerals Commission to obtain an export license. There has never been a singular instance, or a plural instance or multiple instances where the PMMC revoked the licence of Menzgold or MenzBank Ghana Limited. It’s never occurred.

“So when Mr Opare Hammond does so, he’s engaged in economic defamation, he’s engaged in undermining the integrity and reputation of Menzgold.”

Lawyer Akuffo went further to advise Mr Hammond to stick to the dictates of his office saying, “he oversteps the boundaries of the jurisdiction allotted to him by his office. He is not the public relations officer of the Minerals Commission. He is responsible for the conducts of staff and the regulations of the PMMC.”

The BoG on Tuesday, 7 August 2018, issued its fourth public notice that it is in discussions with relevant regulatory authorities to sanction Menzgold Company Limited for engaging in “solicitation, receipt of money or investment and the payment of dividends or returns to its clients” even though it does not have a licence to do so.

The BoG, in a public notice signed by Mrs Caroline Otoo, Secretary to Governor Dr Ernest Addison, said in spite of several cautions to Menzgold Ghana Company Limited to desist from the act, it persists in its deposit-taking activity in breach of section 6(1) of the Banks and Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions Act, 2016 (Act 930).

The central bank cautioned the general public that anyone who transacts “any of the above-mentioned businesses with Menzgold Ghana Company Limited does so at his or her own risk”, adding that the Bank of Ghana will not be liable in the event of loss of investments of deposits.

But Menzgold in a statement described the BoG’s announcement as “unfortunate and disparaging” and insisted it neither takes deposits from customers nor does any deposit-taking business in Ghana.

“Our activities are not within the scope of the Banks and Specialized Deposit-Taking Institutions, Act, 2016, Act 930. It, therefore, cannot be said that we are in breach of the Act,” the statement said.

On Wednesday, barely a day after the BoG warning, there were reports that the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) had sent an invitation to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Menzgold, Nana Appiah Mensah.