Agyapa deal: NDC lacks competent men -NPP MP

The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) while in government had plans to mortgage the country’s mineral resources but failed due to lack of human resources, according to the Majority Spokesperson on Finance, Hon. Daniel Okyem Aboagye, Member of Parliament for Bantama.
“NDC in the 2011 budget wanted to do the Agyapa deal but failed because of incompetence and how to go by such transaction”, Hon. Okyem Aboagye said on Opemsuo FM morning show hosted by George Opoku Mensah Agudey.
According to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Bantama Constituency in Kumasi, the Minority NDC MPs in parliament are behaving as if the Agyapa Minerals Royalty deal is bad for Ghana.
“With all due respect, they have taken such posture because they don’t understand the issues. They are ignorant. Not all of them, though”, the Bantama lawmaker described on “Nkwantananso” show.
Parliament of Ghana on Friday, August 14, 2020, approved Five Agreements that allowed the country to derive maximum value from its mineral resources and monetize its mineral income sustainably and responsibly, in line with the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) Act of 2018 (Act 978).
The Act enables the country to use Agyapa Mineral Royalty Limited, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) as a conduit for securing about $1 billion to finance large infrastructural projects.
In line with that, Agyapa, which will operate as an independent private sector entity, will be able to raise funds from the capital market, both locally and internationally, as an alternative to the conventional debt capital market transactions.
The funds are expected to be raised from the Ghana Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange. The company which is to be listed on the London and Ghana Stock Exchanges is owned entirely by the Government of Ghana and once listed, Government of Ghana through the Mineral Income Investment Fund (MIIF) would be the majority shareholder with at least 51% of the shares.
On 27th August, 2020 – Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister for Finance at a press briefing said the Agyapa Mineral Royalty Limited arrangement was the best deal for Ghana’s gold. Government, he revealed was excited about the listing of Agyapa Royalty Company in London as the first royalty company of that nature in Africa.
The Minster further stated that “the largest increase in value of these raw materials occurred when they leave the shores of Ghana and were converted into refined products or monitizeable securities”.
“We all fail to see the value we desire because when we assess the effectiveness of our policies and legislation, we limit the extent of our expectations to the national borders, we take no interest in what happens to our resources when they leave our shores” Mr. Ofori-Atta observed.
“The desire to domesticate our expectations when operating in a global markets adds to hurt and limit developing countries and the NPP government is determined to break our economy free from these old boundaries”, he stressed.
The rational for the transaction is to create and launch Africa’s first gold royalty company and showcase Ghana as the premier destination for gold assets and resource mining, whilst raising non debt funding for capital investment.
This is a sure way to attract investment into the sector, increase exploration activity, provide financing to owners of mining concessions looking for equity type of financing to develop their mines and bring them to production as well as ensure rural development.
Income from this transaction would be used in four main areas, health, education, road infrastructure and housing. Mining communities would be prioritized to benefit from these projects. Part of the proceeds would also go to support the new National Development Bank as well as the Ghana Infrastructure and Investment Fund. This was disclosed at the Press Conference.
Source: Opemsuo.com/News Desk