The new Management of Safeway Investments Limited has told Citi Business News it will roll out a plan to pay customers whose investments have been locked up in the company in July this year.
About fourteen thousand investors have had their monies running into millions of cedis, locked up in the investment company following the management’s inability to pay outstanding debts.
The development, Citi Business News understands was also as a result of the tilapia investment portfolio taking a nose dive.
Some clients have threatened legal action against the company all in a bid to retrieve their monies.
Documents cited by Citi Business News also indicated a change in management and outline a process to get customers paid.
The new management explains that it will commence operations in its tilapia production portfolio in June which will allow it commence payment to customers who have had their monies delayed.
Public Relations Officer of Safeway Investments, Mamah Martei assures customers will be paid by the stipulated time.
“From June, we will start production and then beginning July, we will come out with a payment plan so that investors will have their monies. The interest as agreed is a compounded one and until we commence production, we cannot say or determine anything,” he said.
He further stated, “Previously the management was having challenges so it was difficult reaching them but we have tried our best to reconnect to the customers assuring them that their monies are not lost.”
Meanwhile a regional meeting with investors is expected to be held across the country beginning tomorrow, to outline the new management’s strategy to pay clients.
“We are giving the promise that we are starting production, their monies are not lost, just that they have delayed and we are meeting investors to discuss the way forward,” Mamah Martei told Citi Business News.
Speaking on Citi FM’s consumer focus program, Business Today, an aggrieved customer of Safeway Investments explained,
“If you invest for say three years, you would have to wait till another three years before you can reclaim your investments but a reported case of fraud leveled against a similar company like US Tilapia prompted customers to seek the payment of the investments. This also caused panic among the customers of the company.”
Meanwhile the Deputy Chairman of the Ghana Association of Microfinance Companies, Ekow Orleans Boham has re-emphasised public education on investment portfolios to avert a recurrence of fraudulent cases in the financial sector.
Speaking on Business Today, Ekow Orleans Boham was hopeful increased awareness on identifying false investment portfolios, will reduce if not eliminate incidences of fraud within the financial sector going forward.
“It is always good to understand when someone quotes to you…When it is mentioned per annum then it is calculated for the whole year, and if it is 20 percent for 91 days, then you would have to divide it by 4. It goes down to public education on these investment terminologies; people are sometimes swayed because they do not understand some of these things,” he noted.
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By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana