Aggrieved customers of the defunct Gold Coast Fund Management Company spent the night outside the Finance Ministry demanding the release of their frozen cash.

The group alleged that a sum of GH8.6 billion sanctioned by Parliament to settle its members has yet to be paid to them, prompting the protest.

Customers from various areas of the country planned to picket at the Finance Ministry for 48 hours in order to press their requests, but their efforts were not met with the necessary attention from the ministry.

The convener of the group, Charles Nyame, said all efforts to get their locked-up funds from the defunct Gold Coast Fund Management Company have proved futile.

He explains that the decision to spend the night at the ministry is designed to send a strong signal to the government.

In February 2023, some of the customers threatened to sue the government over their locked-up funds.

According to the group, it has been four years since their investments got locked up with the company, which was a regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

“The lock-up of our investments was mainly due to the Government’s policy of a Financial Sector Clean-up Exercise in Ghana initiated in 2018,” the Group said in a statement.

They lamented that even though affected customers were assured of receiving their funds, none of them have been called to come for their monies.

The group argued that the decision by government to take over the debt and validating customers claims with an initial payment of ¢50,000 per each investment makes the government liable to the customers on the grounds of absorption of responsibility.

They pointed out that affected depositors would have taken action to retrieve their deposit since 2018 but for the government taking over the responsibility to pay us.