Finance Minister briefs Chamber of Chiefs on Agyapa royalty agreement

Business news for Saturday, September 26, 2020

Source: GNA

2020-09-26

Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, the Minister of Finance, appeared before the National Chamber of Chiefs to brief members on the concept and benefits that Ghana would reap from the Agyapa royalty agreement.

The move was part of a broader stakeholder consultation the ministry is conducting to explain the reason for the deal, which has generated much controversy since parliament approved the deal. The Minister, who was in the company of a team of Ministry officials, told the House that the Agyapa agreement was in the best interest of Ghana and should be supported by all stakeholders.

Deputy Finance Minister Charles Adu Boahen delivered an elaborate PowerPoint presentation containing details of the transaction.

Ofori-Atta said the Agyapa deal was an attempt to look at capital without putting pressure on the treasury and preventing the country from adding to the debt stock in the government’s investment drive.

He said the government intends to conserve about 20 percent of the capital raised for new acquisitions of mining opportunities across the continent to make the royalty company the largest in the world.

The minister said that in addition to raising capital for infrastructure development in advance under the Agyapa deal, Ghana would become a shareholder in a much larger company depending on how the market performs.

“It offers us an incredible opportunity to reinvent ourselves and rebuild our country to bring the Black Star where it belongs,” he said.

He said it was important to tap into our gold resources to change our fortunes as a nation by participating in the capital market in the West, which would yield much more returns than here.

“Nananom, physical metallic gold in the capital markets, we trade 500 times more than that, so the real money is not only physical but it positions Ghana to be able to participate where the added value is,” he said.

Members of the Chamber took turns asking relevant questions about the transaction, which were answered by the Minister and his team.

Some of them expressed concern about why the Ministry did not involve them before taking the deal to Parliament despite being custodians of the land with a vested interest in mineral royalties.

Togbe Afede XIV, Speaker of the Chamber, instructed the Ministry to review the two positions reserved for the Mineral Income Investment Fund (MIIF) on the Board of Directors of Agyapa Mineral Royalty Company.

He argued that, as the company’s majority shareholder, his representation on the Board of Directors should not be less than five of the nine members of the Board of Directors.