Agyapa deal has been misunderstood – Presidential Staffer
Dennis Edward Aboagye, director of local government, decentralisation and rural development (LGD&RD) at the Office of the President has said that the Agyapa Royalties deal has hugely been misunderstood.
According to him, the Agyapa deal only seeks to generate resources for development projects in the country.
Speaking on Asaase Radio’s news analysis and current affairs show – The Forum – on Saturday (14 May), Aboagye said, “I think that Agyapa has hugely been miscommunicated or to say hugely misunderstood by a lot of people, maybe through a deliberate twist of the facts by political opponents and opponents to the principle.
“Because if you scrutinise the Agyapa deal very well and look at it critically, you’ll realise that there’s nothing untoward in there, there’s nothing bad in there. It is simply to say that let’s as much as possible find the resources that we need from that particular sector now to be able to provide development to our people and also help us get a lot more stake in the mining sector.
He added, “obviously, if you look at the objectives of the Agyapa deal, one of them is the fact that we’ll be able to get the needed funds to also invest in the mining sector and increase our revenue from that space.”
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Increase consultations
Meanwhile, on the same show, Ellen Ama Daaku, a member of the New Patriotic Party has called for an improved national engagement to fully explain and understand the details of the Agyapa deal to avoid resistance.
She said: “I agree that we should engage more. But, for some time now, nobody has spoken about Agyapa, it was a question that was asked by the finance minister and he gave his personal opinion on it. And he said he’ll be bringing it back again. So, I don’t see what the problem is.”
My mind is still on Agyapa
Earlier, Ken Ofori-Atta, the Minister for Finance said that he still wants to pursue the Agyapa Royalties deal.
Ofori-Atta said he still has in his mind the agreement because he believes it is best for the country.
Speaking at the Minister’s Press Briefing on Thursday 12 May, he said, “My firm philosophical belief really is that the capital markets are meant for something that will lead us to equity resources and we are not leveraging on it. Therefore, it is not the question of whether monetization of mineral royalties or listing of the company is bad or good.”
Ofori-Atta said, “It is good because that is how you raise the resources. The question is the process of doing that. If you have a problem with the process just articulate it, let’s cure it but let us not drop something that will be good for us that will reduce our debt exposure. So those are two very different questions. How best to do it as opposed to, don’t do it. My mind is still there, I know the president has mentioned something about that going through the AG, Parliament to do that [Agyapa deal].”
