The CEO of the defunct gold dealership, MenzGold, has called on the government to unfreeze his bank accounts to enable him pay his clients.

 The demand was contained in a press conference addressed by Nana Appiah Mensah at the MJ Grand Hotel in Accra on Monday.

It is his first speech since being granted bill for crimes of defrauding by false pretence and money laundering.

The full speech is published below.

“Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press.

Thank you for coming to this event meant to provide you with the detailed state of our companies especially, what has bedeviled Menzgold for the past twelve months and the way forward.

May I state humbly that, this communication is without Prejudice.

First of all, let me start by praying the almighty God for grace today and to thank him gratefully as we count our many blessings.

Let me also take the opportunity to thank the Government of Ghana; Ambassador of Ghana to the United Arab Emirates; His Excellency Alhaji Ahmed Ramadan, for the consular services extended to me during my eight months detention in Dubai.

I thank the Ghana Police Service for the warm reception and the exhibition of professionalism in the discharge of their duty on my arrival to Ghana on the 11th July 2019.

I express my greatest form of immense gratitude to the ruler of Dubai, His Royal Highness Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, in his gracious name the Dubai Prosecutions and the Dubai Courts exhibited the highest form of integrity, by boldly upholding the rule of law, handing me justice before the Dubai first instance and superior Courts in the case number 68807/2018, an acquittal and discharge. May Allah, ever merciful, most compassionate bless and prosper Dubai forever. Allah Kareem.

I owe an immense debt of gratitude to the people of Ghana, our legal team abroad and in Ghana, led by Mr. Kwame Boafo Akuffo, my brother and my good friend; who has been resolute, exhibited loyalty and courage in the face  of our adversity, exhibiting his service and commitment to nothing but the law.

Today, I cannot forget to bless the over one thousand staff of Menzgold, Zylofon Media, Brew Marketing Consult and all our other companies in Ghana, as well as our families for their unwavering support, since the unfortunate events of the past few months.

To you all I say; you made a good choice which would be well rewarded by God almighty, especially Mr. Kwame Boafo, like the biblical Moses, you chose to side and share in the afflicting of God’s people, instead of enjoying the temporary pleasures of sin. Thank you so much.

I also reserve my biggest gratitude to our cherished Menzgold customers for their continued support, encouragement, loyalty and prayers through the trying times. Thank you.

Even though I am still receiving the much-needed medical attention, swellings-blood clots in my pelvic region and knees with excruciating pains following a past surgical procedure, due to my well-publicized long nine-months detention in Dubai and Ghana.

Regardless, I deem it very fit to make this address to the general public, especially to Menzgold customers in a bid to keep them abreast with the ongoings.

Menzgold Ghana Company Limited is a licensed reputable Ghanaian gold dealership firm, with six years of impeccable and enviable service delivery and gold trading record.

It would interest you to know that in five years, Menzgold consistently met the demands of its customers, suppliers and foreign partners who do business with us, but for the force majeure; the regulatory questions raised by the Bank of Ghana and the Securities and Exchange Commission; regulatory intervention of which we respectfully contested and is still before the Ghanaian courts of law.

A question of statutory interpretation of; as to whether or not the trading of gold collectibles or jewelry and the return of monthly profits on same to traders is, “Deposits-Taking” or “Deposits Mobilization” Activity or “trade-in Securities”.

As to whether or not the exports of tons of gold dore bars of very fine percentage purity, with many evidence of inflows in forex via the bank of Ghana is a “Ponzi scheme?”, praying the just and august Ghanaian Courts to make consequential orders to repair Menzgold damage, if any.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Menzgold got very successful with its gold dealership business, resulting in the buying of gold, exports and the produce of fine gold collectibles (jewelries) to satisfy the domestic market, an innovative drive in adherence to the government’s campaign for made in Ghana goods. We saw the need to embark on a drive for international expansion in a quest to broaden our market share size, which saw the openings of some international outlets in Madrid, London and Lagos.

The famous “shut-down” letter landed our business, staff, customers and shareholders a catastrophic blow, which sadly led to many very horrific occurrences that brought untold economic hardship to our families, our dear customers and the staff body of all our companies, many of whom are customers too due to the reputable nature of our business.

To you all who suffered various degrees of upsets, being it directly or indirectly, we share equally in your pain. With God on our side, we shall soon change this sad Menzgold tale to a very happy narrative, as I grasp a resolve now to drive Menzgold from good to great.

The Menzgold product line that has been questioned, is one that is just an act of innovation characterized by most businesses worldwide.

We sought to build a word processor out of a typewriter in our line of business, with the hope of being encouraged to create wealth in the face of globalization.

I noticed that, the 21st century witnesses a blowing wave of globalization, yet Africa has seen limited technological innovative advancements, which stifle our economic growth and lame our progress due to lack of will to invest in the difficult task of creating new things, this turn to make companies in Africa fail in the future, no matter how big a company’s stated capital is or who is in the helm of affairs. With this background juxtaposed with my vision and drive to build a business that would surpass our generation, innovation was the only option.

As it turned out with the “cease and desist” directive from the Securities and Exchange Commission, the need arose for us to mobilize Company assets, especially outstanding payments due to our company from several companies and individual buyers in several countries, particularly in the United Arab Emirates to meet the payment obligations owed to Menzgold traders/customers and other business associates.

It was in this regard that I embarked on the pursuit of Company assets/debt recovery overseas.

In the course of my pursuits, upon my arrival in Dubai on the 7th December 2017, I was framed by one of the companies; Horizon Royal Diamond, which owes our Company 750kgs of gold, valued at usd$39,000,000 dollars, believing that Menzgold is doomed for closure, due to the unfavorable media reportage and customers protests in Ghana, hence, tabled a bogus claim that they have been defrauded by another Ghanaian Company; Just Gold Company Limited, with frivolous claims of the Just Gold, limited having associations with our Company, which is very false.

The subsequent action by the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) to freeze Menzgold and my personal assets further hardened the resolve of some of our debtors who thought Menzgold was a thing of the past.

Following my graceful acquittal and discharge in the Dubai Superior Court, the need arose for me to return to Ghana immediately on the call of the Interpol red notice, to answer criminal charges on the same customers debt portfolio before the Ghanaian Court, the very reason why I went to Dubai in the first place. A call that restrained me from laying claim to the funds I went to the UAE to recoup.

All companies worldwide have liabilities in their books and so do Menzgold. Business, in summary, is all about owing and being owed. We at Menzgold are committed and do express our willingness to service our debts portfolios to our customers and business associates as soon as we can with a given opportunity.

We respectfully pray the Ghanaian authorities to cooperate with us to achieve the following;

1.         To assist us to make a full recovery of the amount owed Menzgold by Horizon Royal Diamond in Dubai. As an act of good faith, we are willing to engage the Attorney General’s office on the best possible way for them to aid Menzgold by employing international law and diplomatic relations to ensure we achieve this objective.

2.         To unfreeze our Companies and my personal bank accounts and assets for us to utilize these as vehicles to get productive in other to meet our liabilities, owed to our customers and some business associates in our bid to resolve our liabilities immediately. As of now, Brew Marketing Consult, Menzgold and I cannot credit or debit any bank account in Ghana.

This is why it is highly imperative to consider this kind request, as I believe, government shares in our resolve and would do all that which is needful in our quest to satisfy the populace, who are our customers. 

3.         To clearly give direction as to which government agent or agency has jurisdiction to regulate the activity of a “gold collectible/jewelry trade” in Ghana, just so we can apply for the necessary certifications in other to proceed with our business in a fair and sound manner.

As we have publicly demonstrated, we are open to fair supervision and are opposed to no supervision, misconceived supervision or supervision with malicious intents, respectfully. The founders of PayPal; Elon Musk and co.; set out to create a new internet currency to replace the US Dollar, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg’s first product was designed to only get his classmates signed up, not the earth’s population, Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp’s Uber, started only to supplement the taxi fleet in San Francisco, Brian Chesky, Joe and Nathan started Airbnb as a means to rent out an unused space in their abode to get income to supplement a deficit for a pending event, Evan Spiegel, Bobby and Reggie started what came to be known today as SnapChat, as sending naughty disappearing fun photos when they were all student at Stanford University.

America’s media called it a “sexting App”, Jeff Bezos started Amazon as a digital bookstore in a garage, was heckled by the big players in the books retailing business, Jack Ma fought through and achieved Alibaba in China and the list goes on. All of these innovative breakthroughs had regulatory questions, suffered bad press. Uber and Airbnb particularly have suffered global protests, Travis Kalanick; founder and first CEO of Uber especially, fought many regulatory and legal battles. Today, these great Innovative Companies are pillars of the great Silicon Valley, receiving global tributes for the United States of America.

These are just symptoms of disruptive business ideas. Menzgold is today characterized by same traits and I have no doubt in mind that, our company is on the path to greatness and global prominence. 

 IF these three propositions are reviewed and considered, we shall confidently proceed to make the necessary arrangements to start paying our customers immediately under my watch. This i say with my personal guarantee.

While my detention in Dubai was a harrowing, daunting, terrific and horrific experience, I am grateful to God because I feel very refined. It has made me older than my age as we grow in our experiences and not in years. I am fulfilled and ready for greater exploits, highly motivated to add up to our previous gain. I am happy about the disruption, a key trait about a successful business prospect in this information age, is the ability to scale. As Mario Andretti, a champion car racer rightly puts it, “If everything is under control, you’re just not going fast enough”.

Zylofon Media is an entertainment media business built upon technical expertise such as creating, composing, storytelling and performance. It’s also built on innovation just like Menzgold, employing technology to develop new breakthroughs in arts, traditional and digital media products.

Tomorrow would witness a Zylofon Media that can be described as a multifunctional media in the digital space, which would cater for a wide variety of international interest and needs.

It would comfort you to note, that Zylofon Media is not just another media firm; we are a media and Arts technology company. Our competitors are not in Ghana, they are far away in Silicon Valley, California. To you I say, Ants that unite can beat an elephant. Admittedly, we have made some pretty good losses. We are happy about our loss having been a disruptive art and media business.

We wear our loss as a badge of honor. Our loss depicts our grand ambition. By natural law, you have to go through a thunderstorm to see the rainbow. Our eyes are still set on the colorful rainbow. We shall succeed.

Brew Marketing Consult Co. Limited is a marketing company. A Commodity broker of a sort, which works for commissions by matching selling and buying leads. I encourage Companies worldwide with marketing needs in Ghana and Africa to take advantage of Brew Marketing’s great professional marketing prowess, as the company did for Menzgold, resulting in Menzgold’s mighty growth.

To the staff body of all our companies, I couldn't have been more proud of you for standing resolute in the face of adversity. I encourage you to continue to stand strong as we navigate the path of soon meeting up to the demands of our cherished customers.

To our Menzgold customers, we note that you have experienced an increased level of anxiety and concern, but have been extremely understanding and patient with us through these trying times. We continue to recognize and respect your sacrifice, please remember that your patience and support for us is not an entitlement, but something we earned by the way we worked with you diligently over the past years. I can assure you that, it would pay off favorably soon.

Together, we are very conscious of our responsibilities towards you our cherished esteemed customers and we will do everything we can to individually and collectively meet your expectations.

To the government of Ghana, we applaud you for not “sparing the rod and spoiling the child”, we’ve got your message, we’ve grown and are ready to accept and take up responsibility if any.

I want to reiterate, that I do not seek political office or power, My goal towards contributing for the good of Ghana and Africa, is a missionary and not mercenary. Clearly, my willingness to be misunderstood is the basis of our many criticisms and the exercise of brute force and skewed media reportage witnessed against our outfits in the last twelve months. I am an entrepreneur and remains as such.

Last but not the least, to the many Ghanaian and African youth, as well as the aged who believes in me and the Nam Mission. We shall continue to contribute to those in authority, for creation of the new Ghana and the new Africa for the new Ghanaian and the new African, in the new African socio-economic front.

I am well aware, that many of you crave African posterity, to you all I ask; The Egyptian who conceived the idea of the pyramid and actually built it, had same natural abilities we have with less access to information than we do today, yet succeeded. Which African would build the next “Egyptian pyramid”? Ghana Shall Prosper, Africa would be great again.

Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you all for coming.”