Don’t demonstrate for me – Menzgold CEO urges Kasoa youth

Chief Executive Officer of Menzgold, Nana Appiah Mensah

The Chief Executive Officer of gold trading firm Menzgold Ghana Company Limited, Nana Appiah Mensah popularly known as NAM1, has called for calm following reports that some youth in Kasoa are planning a demonstration in solidarity with the under-fire company.

In a tweet Friday, the business magnate said: “My attention has been drawn to a pending demonstration in the Awutu Senya East municipality in solidarity of Menzgold. I humbly urge all to desist. We are employing a diplomatic resolution under the tenet of rule of law in the interest of our beloved republic”.

The development comes after the recent public exchange of words between some regulators and the firm.

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have, for instance, rejected claims by the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) that the company’s licence has been revoked.

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According to him, Menzgold earlier license granted by the PMMC in 2014 has long been revoked.

But Menzgold is challenging the claim.

Speaking to Starr News, Lawyer for Menzgold, Kwame Akuffo rubbished the claims of the PMMC as untenable.

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.