Gold Fever in Ghana
A revival of the olden days. We all know the stories from former times
about people in the (Wild) West of the USA who left everything behind just because they heard it would be very easy to find gold and often in an impulse they decided to go and look for it themselves, in the hope to be lucky. Some succeeded, but many stayed behind empty-handed, having lost an illusion.
For some time now Ghana is also in the spell of Gold fever. No, I’m not talking about the well-known Ghana Gold Mines, which gave Ghana the proud nickname “Land of Gold”.
This time we are dealing with a complete different matter, being the “Fun Clubs”. One of these is the so-called “God is Love Fun Club” (sometimes also referred to as Fan Club…) here in Nkoranza. Officially it is a Social Club, but at the end it’s all about the financial contribution of the “club members”. They are told to receive a fantastic profit on their deposit, namely 60% in 2 months (deposit 1.000 Cedi, after 2 months 1.600 Cedi!!). Initially the club even promised 100% profit in 2 months, now it’s still 60%.
At first only few people dared to bring their money to this “Social Club / Investment Club” and they really were rewarded for their courage (or is it: their gambling!?), for they received their money + the promised super profit at the correct time. Hoping for more and more profit most of the people re-invested the money they just received immediately and after the success of the first group others decided to join the club as new members as well. In this way most of the money remained in the system of the “God is Love Fun Club” and even more money came in. This made it possible to pay out the next time money + profit again and it’s not difficult to guess how the story continued. Based on the success of the first groups almost everyone wanted to invest their money to become rich overnight!
Almost all caregivers of PCC did so too! Nobody would like to stay behind as a “loser” when all others (seem to) become rich while sleeping and so most caregivers brought money, a lot of money, even all their savings (!) to the God is Love Fun Club. Just waiting for only 2 months and then……!?
For some time now Ghana is also in the spell of Gold fever. No, I’m not talking about the well-known Ghana Gold Mines, which gave Ghana the proud nickname “Land of Gold”.
This time we are dealing with a complete different matter, being the “Fun Clubs”. One of these is the so-called “God is Love Fun Club” (sometimes also referred to as Fan Club…) here in Nkoranza. Officially it is a Social Club, but at the end it’s all about the financial contribution of the “club members”. They are told to receive a fantastic profit on their deposit, namely 60% in 2 months (deposit 1.000 Cedi, after 2 months 1.600 Cedi!!). Initially the club even promised 100% profit in 2 months, now it’s still 60%.
At first only few people dared to bring their money to this “Social Club / Investment Club” and they really were rewarded for their courage (or is it: their gambling!?), for they received their money + the promised super profit at the correct time. Hoping for more and more profit most of the people re-invested the money they just received immediately and after the success of the first group others decided to join the club as new members as well. In this way most of the money remained in the system of the “God is Love Fun Club” and even more money came in. This made it possible to pay out the next time money + profit again and it’s not difficult to guess how the story continued. Based on the success of the first groups almost everyone wanted to invest their money to become rich overnight!
Almost all caregivers of PCC did so too! Nobody would like to stay behind as a “loser” when all others (seem to) become rich while sleeping and so most caregivers brought money, a lot of money, even all their savings (!) to the God is Love Fun Club. Just waiting for only 2 months and then……!?
If you ask about the business model for the investments, nobody can tell you anything. There is no signed agreement between the Club and its members nor any info document about the investments. There is just the knowledge that others got their money with huge profit, so why have doubts…..?
Looking from some distance this Social Club shows all aspects of a Pyramid scheme. Even many Ghanaians do understand that the case is not completely safe and sound; they have a nice expression for the principle behind the Club: “Robbing Peter to pay Paul”…..
The Bank of Ghana looked at the Club with some suspicion and concluded it was a case of illegal banking. But the judge had a different opinion, saying: “It’s only a Social Club, isn’t it?”….!?
Gradually more people came forward wanting to receive all their money, probably afraid that otherwise they might be too late to cash the predicted profits.
And then…..then the payments stalled…….!! “Come back tomorrow…..?”, “OK, maybe next week….? Or hopefully in 3 weeks….???
The fear is great that the savings, earned by hard working, as well as the promised profits will all vanish and one can sometimes even notice that painful feeling when looking to the faces of some caregivers. Imagine you might have saved little by little for years to gather some small capital and then suddenly all your savings are possibly lost at once, it can’t be true……or ….????
The latest situation (15th July 2015):
All club members have been told that within a few weeks the money (all? or half? or even less??) will be paid into their bank account. The tension is still immense as the fear to have lost all remains.
We will keep you informed about the progress of the Gold Fever in Ghana!