There will be no lags in new Agyapa deal, says Ofori-Atta

Ken Ofori-Atta, Finance Minister-designate says the new Agyapa deal will be in the best interest of the country and will address concerns raised by relevant stakeholders.

Responding to questions from members of the Parliament’s Appointments Committee on Thursday (25 March), Ofori-Atta said the new Agyapa deal will be submitted to Parliament for debate and necessary inputs soon.

“As we look at the new normal in which there seems to be quite a bit of debt by all countries, what do we do to our natural resources to leverage it into equity? And I think that is a question we have to face.

“As to how that is mobilized and the issues to contend with, I think that is the more reason why the president wants to submit the new deal to Parliament. So that the issues are discussed. But philosophically, I hope we are all going to come to terms with the reality of diversifying how we capitalise and fund our nation as we intend to do,” he said.

The move to submit a new Agyapa deal to Parliament follows a corruption risk assessment conducted by Martin Amidu arguing that consultations over the transaction were not comprehensive and wide-reaching enough.

According to Amidu, the appointment of advisors for the agreement was not transparent like it ought to be.

However, Ofori-Atta said resubmitting the deal to Parliament will help the country to achieve a national consensus-building to clear all doubts about the contract.

Background

In 2018, Parliament passed the Minerals Income Investment Fund Act, 2018 which establishes the fund to manage the equity interests of Ghana in mining companies and receive royalties on behalf of the government. The purpose of the fund is to manage and invest these royalties and revenue from equities for higher returns for the benefit of the country.

The government then, through the Minerals Income Investments Fund(MIIF), set up Agyapa Royalties Limited to monetize Ghana’s gold royalties. This was after Parliament on 14 August 2020, approved the Agyapa Mineral Royalty Limited agreement with the Government of Ghana despite the walkout by the minority.

In exchange, the company plans to raise between $500 million and up to about US$1 billion for the government on the Ghana and London Stock Exchanges to invest in developmental projects.

The deal, however, became a topical issue following concerns first by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) leading up to the December 2020 general elections.

On 14 August 2020, a few days after approving an amendment to the MIIF Act, the Minority walked out during the approval process of the very transaction agreements, the facilitation of which the amendment to the Fund’s statute was amended.

Civil society groups quickly added their voices to the opposition, describing the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), being created then, Agyapa Royalties of Jersey, as not being transparent, potentially corrupt, under valued and that it must be suspended for greater stakeholder involvement, according to some of the dissenting voice.

The government has however insisted that the deal is in the best interest of the country. The president, last year, directed the Finance Minister and Attorney General to review the transaction agreement and make necessary adjustment to address some of the concerns raised by stakeholders.

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