1• First they said 49% of Agyapa Royalties was owned by people close to the President? When it became very clear that 100% of Agyapa is for Minerals Income Investment Fund which is 100% owned by Govt, and that only up to 49% of Agyapa will be listed on the London Stock Exchange and later on Ghana Stock Exchange for anybody interested to buy, they had to shift to something else.
2• Now they say Kofi Osafo Maafo is not qualified and only there because of his father. When it was pointed out that Kofi was one of 6 Ghanaians head hunted by a top recruitment agency in California and that Kofi was perfect among them because he has 18yrs experience in managing gold and oil assets for major financial houses, including HSBC, they said he is occupying a deputy position which does not exist even though his position, Deputy DG in charge of Investments and Development at SSNIT was created in June 2016 by John Mahama.
3• When they couldn’t link Asaase Radio to Asaase Royalties which is now Agyapa because over 22 companies have the name Asaase including 10 gold mining companies, they now ask why Gabby’s firm Africa Legal Associates is a transaction advisor? They think Gabby is Tony Lithur who controlled all government’s legal business. ALA hardly does direct Govt business unless in support of a client or partner.
4• When it was pointed out to them that ALA was only a local partner of the big multinational law firm (among the top 10 in the world) which won a bid to be transactional advisors, they now said Gabby has been paid $2m. Which is a lie! Charles Adu Boahen corrected them that $2m is the amount paid to all transaction advisors.
Indeed ALA has not even received 5% of that amount for work done over the last two and a half years. How many corporate law firms in Ghana will work for over 2yrs on a case which involves many lawyers travelling at your own expense and take less than $50,000 a year?
5• When it was pointed out to them that the choice of Jersey for Agyapa is merely to prevent shareholders and the company paying income tax and taxes on dividends and capital gains, they said it is morally wrong for a Govt to register a company offshore and John Mahama says Jersey, where Tullow and Vodafone are registered, means there is corruption. But it was this same John Mahama who as Communications Minister defended the setting up of Gallen Ltd, an SPV offshore to merely LEASE the Gulfstream III presidential jet in the late 1990s.
6• When it was pointed out to them that the MIIF Act they helped pass in 2018 provided that the SPV should be set up and be tax exempt, they say that doesn’t matter anymore. When again they know NPP Govt has since 2008 always been for setting up offshore financial services in Ghana and even a manifesto pledge to make Ghana an international financial services Centre (offshore haven) to attract billions of foreign investments to make Ghana the financial hub of Africa even as Ghana becomes the secretariat of AfCFTA, they still won’t give up.
7• They say selling 49% of our royalties from 16 mining companies amount to collateralizing future incomes for some small money. But, is it ok for us to borrow long term for our children to come and pay and not good for us to sell upfront and use the money to develop GHANA for our kids and educate them for the future? When it was pointed out to them that Mahama even described as “foolish and baloney” for Ghana not to be able to use future earnings from oil today to develop Ghana, they say Mahama does not have to be consistent when it comes to gold!
8•Govt’s total annual revenue is GHS67 billion, and less than GHS1bn is from earnings from gold. This Agyapa deal is to raise more than GHS3bn from floating 49%, use 20% (600m) to invest in other mines in development stages in Ghana so that we own more shares in them and even earn more in future even as we invest the bulk of the rest to develop rapidly. It is smart economic management!
9•When you ask them what has Ghana really earned from being a world leading gold mining company for centuries, when you compare SA to Ghana, they say they like it like that! It is because they have a slave mentality and Akufo-Addo is too ahead of them in wanting Ghanaians to prosper.
10• The truth is the NDC tried to do something like Agyapa in 2010 when Dr Duffuor was Finance Minister but they did not have the brains to structure it well and it collapsed. They set up the Ghana Gold Company. The transaction was handled by a chap called Kofi Adjei who left Macquarie in London to come to Ghana to be the advisor to MoF which was looking at ways to securitise our gold bullions. They could not do it. NPP with bigger brains is doing it. And they are crying foul because they know the money can be used to fund a lot of development projects Akufo-Addo is doing.
Trust Akufo-Addo the leader who has shown that he will put Ghana first all the time.
11• They say Government is selling Ghana short on Agyapa. Then they leak a first letter from the AG dated July 22 where the AG is taking issues with a draft agreement on Agyapa as not in Ghana’s interest. All of a sudden, the AG is standing up for Ghana. They leave out, for their mischief, a series of back and forth correspondence between AG and the transaction advisors as it is normal with lawyers in drafting agreements. But when the AG finally writes in August that she is happy that her concerns have been taking care of in the final agreement they still say the agreement is bad!
By Ibrahim Samsondeen writes
