I’ll Cancel Shady Agyapa Deal, Probe PDS …Mahama Warns Akufo-Addo

Former President John Mahama has said the architects of the Agyapa Royalties deal are cronies of President Nana Akufo-Addo and hints at cancelling the agreement should he win the 7 December 2020 polls.

“If I become president, I will not accept that deal”, he threatened.

In an interview on TV XYZ, Mr Mahama said: “Agyapa is a very shady deal”, asserting: “It is a theft of Ghanaian royalties”.

According to him, “the people of Ghana do not accept that deal” since, in his view, “it is against the money laundering rules”.

“If you look at the people who put this together, they are people close to the president and already they have been paid two million dollars”, the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress claimed.

“This president and his family think they can do anything and get away with it,” Mr Mahama said.

Mr Mahama also said his next government will “investigate PDS, especially when people related to the President were involved in structuring the PDS deal”.

“There is enough evidence to investigate PDS and prosecute”.

Parliament passed the deal two weeks ago by approving five agreements to allow the country to derive maximum value from its mineral resources and monetise its mineral income accruing to the country in a sustainable and responsible manner, in line the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) Act, 2018 (Act 978).

The approval will enable the country to use a special purpose vehicle, Agyapa Royalties Limited, to secure about $1 billion to finance large infrastructural projects.

In line with that, Agyapa, which will operate as an independent private sector entity, will be able to raise funds from the capital market, both locally and internationally, as an alternative to the conventional debt capital market transactions.

The funds, which are expected to be raised from the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) and the London Stock Exchange (LSE), will be long-term capital, without a corresponding increase in Ghana’s total debt stock and hence without a public debt repayment obligation.

What is MIIF and Agyapa Royalties?

MIIF was formed by the Ghanaian Parliament, pursuant to the Minerals Income Investment Fund Act, 2018 (Act 978) with the key objective of maximising the value of Ghana’s income from its mineral wealth for the benefit of the Ghanaian citizens and to maximise the minerals’ income in a sustainable and responsible manner. The aim of the fund is to ensure that Ghanaians fully benefit from the wealth that is created in the mining sector.

The purpose of MIIF is to hold and manage the equity interests of the Government of Ghana (“GoG”) in mining companies, receive mineral royalties due to the GoG from mining operations, provide for the management and investment of the assets of the Fund, finance further development of the mining sector, and monitor and improve flows into the mining sector.

Regardless of who is in power, the MIIF is the custodian of Ghana’s future mineral revenues. In terms of the MIIF Act, the powers of MIIF include the creation of a Special Purpose Vehicle (“SPV”) in any jurisdiction in furtherance of its objectives, and the listing of the SPV on any reputable stock exchange that MIIF considers appropriate, and assignment of all or any of its rights to mineral income to a SPV in furtherance of the objects of MIIF.

Currently, MIIF is the sole shareholder of Agyapa Royalties, a SPV that is expected to list on the London and Ghana Stock Exchanges. Agyapa Royalties is expected to acquire a portion of the royalty, rent and other income from a number of gold assets in Ghana, comprising 12 producing gold mines, as well as four development assets, most of which are owned and run by major international gold mining companies.

The purpose of listing Agyapa Royalties Limited is to allow the Government of Ghana, via MIIF to raise non-debt capital to invest in the country without further increasing our national debt burden. The issue of equity in a company that is currently 100%-owned by the GoG through MIIF is a new and innovative way to raise funds that can be invested for the benefit of Ghanaian citizens into the future.

The GoG is seeking to raise a significant amount of funds from the listing of Agyapa Royalties Limited and will also expect to receive regular annual dividends in the future from Agyapa Royalties Limited, which will be reinvested in the country to finance strategic capital investments such as economic infrastructure to spur socio-economic development and enhance the lives of all Ghanaians. Ghana must invest in itself and build a future through investment, not aid.