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Agyapa deal to go ahead – Finance Minister

The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, said  government will go ahead with the Agyapa Royalties transactions despite calls for broader consultations with various stakeholders for consensus.

According to him, the agreement provided government with the opportunity to use innovative ways to manage and maximize the country’s mineral wealth and would do that in the best interest of all Ghanaians.

“The current arrangement where the value multinational companies in Ghana’s extractive industry are assessed by basic indicators such as taxes rather “ignores many of the different ways in which the countries that extract the resources utilise their rights beyond and outside of our borders as a means of creating value,” he emphasised.

Mr Ofori-Atta who was responding to a question on whether government would suspend the transaction and conclude with consultations before going ahead on a a joyfm programme, “Newsfile on Saturday and Monitored by the Ghanaian Times said government would go ahead with  the transaction while the consultations continued.

He noted that the period was rife for the transaction and it was important that advantage was taken of the prevailing gold prices which was at its all-time highest.

The minister explained that the novel model of the deal which has caused an uproar among the minority is a tactic that has been adopted by the west adding that it is critical that Ghana gets ahead of the queue in adopting similar approaches to maximise the country’s wealth potential.

“This desire to domesticate our expectations when operating in the global market only adds to hurt and limits developing economies.”

Mr Ofori-Atta also explained that any suggestion that government had an ill-intent through the use of this Special Purpose Vehicle is far from the truth.

He was emphatic that the governing NPP is determined to break the economy free from “old boundaries”.

“If the foreign investor can use the recoverable reserves in our country he has in a concession granted us, to him to raise money which he can choose to spend here or on other businesses he has elsewhere, why can’t we do the same to maximise the benefits we get and use that additional income to accelerate our development and by so doing, expand our economy.”

The new agreement will enable the country to use a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), Agyapa Royalties Limited, to secure about $1 billion to finance large infrastructural projects.

The agreement said to be in line with the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) Act, 2018 (Act 978), was passed without support from the Minority in Parliament.

BY TIMES REPORTER

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