Former second deputy governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Johnson Asiama, has said that the on-going Menzgold saga would not have escalated if he had not exited his position.

In a report on Myjoyonline.com, Dr. Asiama revealed that his exit from the Central Bank saw an escalation in the activities of embattled gold dealership firm, Menzgold.

“From what we are hearing, it appears as though 2018 saw a lot of escalations in Menzgold's operations", he noted.

By that, Dr. Asiama was implying that he had left office before the escalations in Menzgold's operations since he was asked to leave his post in January 2018 which made him resign on January 1, 2018.

According to Dr. Asiama, processes were underway to restructure the operations of Menzgold before he was forced to resign.

“I spoke with them (Menzgold), I engaged their lawyer and we were actually working towards restructuring them", he said.

"So if I had continued that effort, then they would have been restructured. And in that case, they would have become a regulated institution", he added.

The former governor was quick to express that though he was working to regularize Menzgold, it was not a justification to have kept him at post.

The gold dealership company, Menzgold, was reported to have been operating illegally thereby leading to an order by the Securities and Exchange Commission to halt operations.

After the order, a lot more revelations were reported on the irregularities that had clouded Menzgold's operations.

The revelation caused a lot of Ghanaians to lambaste the Bank of Ghana, the Precious Minerals and Marketing Commission, together with other financial regulatory institutions for not critically scrutinizing the activities of Menzgold.

Menzgold began as a small gold dealership company called Menzbanc in 2012 and was licensed to export gold.

In 2016, Menzbanc became Menzgold after the company was alleged to have been licensed for the transformation.

The transformation allowed Menzgold to take gold deposits as well as sell gold collectibles to customers through its sister company, Brew Marketing Consult.

But on September 12, 2018, we published that the Securities and Exchange Commission had ordered Menzgold to shutdown amid licensing issues and irregularities concerning its operations.

Since then, Menzgold has been battling with paying back the investment amount and interest to its customers.

The security agencies are yet to arrest the CEO of Menzgold, Nana Appiah Mensah, who had been charged with defrauding by false pretense and consequently retrieve the cash invested by thousands of people.