NDC Threatens NPP Govt Over Agyapa Deal

Sammy Gyamfi

 

The Opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has threatened to investigate the $12 million Agyapa Gold Royalties Monetisation Transaction known as the Agyapa Deal undertaken by the ruling New Patriotic Party government if the NDC is elected to power.

The National Communications Officer of the party, Sammy Gyamfi, who sounded the warning during a ‘Moment of Truth’ series press conference in Accra on Monday, February 19, lamented that the next NDC government will take legal action against government officials and individuals implicated in the controversial deal.

The Agyapa deal aimed to generate funds for crucial infrastructure projects through mineral royalties but was halted by President Nana Akufo-Addo in 2021 following concerns raised by civil society groups and the NDC.

Before its cancellation, $12million had already been spent on its initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange.

The Agyapa Royalties Investment Ltd, the primary subsidiary under MIIF, was slated for listing on the London Stock Exchange, with expectations to generate approximately $1 billion for financing mining ventures in Ghana and across Africa.

In November 2020, President Akufo-Addo directed the Minister of Finance to resubmit agreements supporting the Agyapa deal to Parliament for a fresh approval process to commence.

However, the NDC at the presser accused the government and its associates of misappropriating funds, labeling the deal as fraudulent and detrimental to the nation’s development prospects.
“My brothers and sisters, I have the full blessing of H.E John Dramani Mahama to inform you and by extension the good people of Ghana, that the next NDC government will investigate the stinky $12 million ‘Agyapa’ scam, retrieve all illegal payments made under same, and ensure that all the perpetrators are prosecuted. The day of accountability is fast approaching, and no one found culpable will be let off the hook by the next NDC/Mahama government.”

“This is a solemn pledge and our charge to keep when by the grace of God and the Ghanaian people, the NDC assumes the reins of government in 2025.”
“We call on the Ghanaian electorate not to allow President Akufo-Addo and his corrupt cabal of family and friends, to install as President, their puppet (Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia), whose sole mission is to cover up the many ills of this remarkably corrupt administration and insulate wrongdoers including himself, from prosecution.”

“Fellow countrymen and women, the “Agyapa” scam clearly amounts to wilfully causing financial loss to the state, and the culprits of same must not go unpunished. We in the NDC, and all well-meaning Ghanaians, repose huge trust and confidence in H.E John Mahama, to pursue and retrieve for the state, public funds that have been lost to looting schemes such as this “Agyapa” scandal, the PDS scandal, the “BOSTGATE” scandal and other acts of naked thievery by officials of the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government and their party apparatchiks’’ Sammy Gyamfi lamented.

He further went on to attack President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his Vice Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia for engaging in what he termed as a brazen abuse of the public purse.

“We have stated times without number that the Agyapa Royalties deal was fraudulent, cooked, and schemed by the corrupt Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government. For the sole purpose of appropriating mineral royalties of the country for themselves in perpetuity. Ghanaians will recall that during the intense public debate on the infamous Agyapa deal, the NDC took a principled decision to stand with the people of Ghana’’.

‘’We kicked against the whole Agyapa arrangement. On grounds that the country’s mineral royalties have been grossly undervalued under the opaque deal. And was going to deny future governments and generations future minerals for development. It is the height of cruelty that the government of President Akufo-Addo and Bawumia engaged in this naked thievery and brazen abuse of the public purse.”

On Agyapa

The CEO of the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF), Edward Nana Yaw Koranteng, recently revealed that the government spent $12 million on the failed Agyapa royalties deal during his appearance before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament.

Mr Koranteng informed PAC that the Ministry of Finance subscribed to the deal based on advice from international consultants, emphasizing that the correct advice was provided for the set-up of a gold royalties company benefiting Ghana.

“My understanding, honourable chair, is that the Ministry of Finance procured the services of international consultancy and companies and financial institutions that have done this in the past and that the advice provided was what the Ministry of Finance stood on.”

“We started with the Ministry of Finance and from the documents that we have, it is clear that the correct advice was provided on the set-up of a gold royalties company where the streaming of the royalties would benefit Ghana,” he added.

-BY Daniel Bampoe

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