Ken Ofori-Atta
The debate on whether the government is right to consolidate all the country’s potential mineral income in one fund and largely managed by a special purpose vehicle (SPV) called Agyapa Royalties is intensifying.
Since last week, the government, through the Ministry of Finance, has been explaining that Agyapa Minerals Limited is 100 per cent owned by Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) Act, 2018 (Act 978), which is also 100 per cent owned by government, and that there are no ‘hidden beneficiaries’ but opponents of the deal are adamant in their opposition that it will serve the interest of the country.
A group calling itself an Alliance of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) working on extractives, anti-corruption and good governance, has been ‘firing’ from all cylinders, claiming that some elements in the government have ‘huge’ interest in the whole deal but could not name those with the ‘interests’.
They further claimed that there has not been ‘full disclosure’ on those behind the SPV (Agyapa Royalties) despite the deal going through Parliament before MIIF was empowered to commence the deal on behalf of the government.
Raising Questions
Dr. Steve Manteaw, who says he speaks for the Alliance of CSOs, insisted that there was lack of transparency in the whole deal and that “rather raises moral and governance questions” adding ,“The assumption that once everything goes through Parliament it is above board and represents the interest of all Ghanaians is deceptive and turns democracy on its head. It makes the elected the only relevant stakeholders in policymaking.”
Elite Capture
During a two-day media engagement to discuss the Ghana Extractive Industry Transparent Initiative (GHEITI) 2017/2018 Mining and Oil/Gas Reports in Koforidua last Friday, Dr. Manteaw announced that he would ‘provoke’ a national conversation on the Agyapa saga.
The Koforidua engagement agenda was without this subject and he could only take a cursory swipe at the arrangement, which according to him, bore the traits of elite capture, a reference to a situation where government officials take hold of public investments.
Effective Term
Another member of IMANI-Africa, Bright Simmons, claimed the whole deal was without what he called “effective term”, saying, “The fact that the term is not in there definitely is beyond dispute and debate.
“In the final agreement, the beneficiary, in this case, Agyapa still has the capability to a successor agreement and renewal leases to be considered as part of the original term,” he said on Joy FM on Saturday.
AG’s Letter
He even claimed the Attorney General had written a letter expressing her disapproval to certain aspects of the deal and said she abandoned her ‘line of advice’ in a second letter after meeting the Finance Minister.
Even though Attorney General Gloria Akuffo has not publicly commented on the matter, various media outlets have claimed she described the deal as ‘onerous’, ‘unconscionable’, and a violation of Bank of Ghana Act and had also claimed that she changed her mind after several meetings those working on the transaction.
According to Bright Simmons, “The life of the lease incorporates renewals, replacements etc…which was the point that or own advisors had raised even before we saw the Attorney General’s document” adding, “We were surprised that the Attorney General will abandon that line of advice because we think it is critical.”
CSOs Consultation
He then said that it was not right for the CSOs not to be consulted by the government in the whole deal, saying, “To expect that the ordinary citizen who has been through all the day-to-day hustle of living in Accra, Kumasi or Sunyani will be able to go through these documents and make an informed decision about whether or not they support the government is completely unrealistic.”
“So it is the role of organisations like ours to spend time and go through these documents so that we can provide a dispassionate and an objective perspective that can help ordinary citizens to come to some conclusions that are informed and balanced.”
Too Late
Abdul Malik Kweku Baako Jnr, who was also on Joy FM’s Newsfile, said it was too late for the CSOs to be demanding to be part of the arrangement when they had all the time to do so during the cooking stage and said their current stance is against the spirit of activism.
“To be honest with you where we have reached, and I am a realist, Parliament has approved the agreement; I’m not too sure that the call for the suspension of this deal is realistic or sustainable. It is not going to happen. It comes with a lot of integrity challenges,” he said.
He added, “I am an advocate of CSOs activism; civil society activism implies that you would be on alert; that you would be searching and researching as to what is happening; the budget is a public record and it’s stated there that the government has an intention to do something like that . . . I have no problem when they are calling for a consultation. My problem is when that call was made.”
Ideal Situation
He said that “It would have been ideal if the government had engaged CSOs but the CSOs must always be on the alert. The activism requires that they are always monitoring what is happening in Parliament; they ought to …but to wait to this stage and then to make calls for reversal or suspension, I think it is an unsustainable thing.”
Ken’s Take
Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, in explaining the deal last Thursday, insisted that there are no hidden shareholders, saying, “It is a clean transaction as far as I know and we’re just looking for ways to maximise value and to play in the game that our multinationals play and now we have the skill set to be able to do that.”
He said, “As far as I know, it (Agypa Royalties deal) has been as transparent as you can see it; it’s gone through Parliament on many levels, gone through Cabinet on many levels and there’s truly nothing to hide except creating something new that may be uncomfortable but it is something new that is going to stand us in great order.”
Mortgage Today
“There are those who say we should be careful not to mortgage or sell today, the gold in the ground for future generations. First of all, this is not the case,” he said and explained, “But I have two questions for those who raise these concerns. If it is okay for the foreign investor who holds the concession to sell what is in the ground upfront, then why not us? But more importantly, why is it okay to borrow today for the future and not good to use our resources to leverages assets for tomorrow.”
“We must be creative to expand our sources of raising income to support our development. We are in a hurry to catch up. Every year, every generation we wait, we keep people and families stuck in the abyss of poverty and suffering.”
Stock Exchange
The minister also said that “we are excited about the listing of Agyapa in London by the end of the year. It creates the first royalty company of that nature in Africa” adding, “It is really sad that for a country that has been mining gold since the 15th century with the Portuguese, we still don’t have any international listing company either in gold or even cocoa. This must come to an end and we believe this is a strong statement to register Ghana’s presence going forward.”
Mr. Ofori-Atta further said that is part of the ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ agenda, insisting, “Five hundred times more gold is traded every day than is mined; much of this happens in countries that have virtually no gold to themselves. President Akufo-Addo says to achieve ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’, we must add considerable value to what we produce and trade.”
No Elite Capture
Gabby Asare Okyere-Darko, who is the NPP lead strategist, said on Asempa FM in Accra that the deal cannot be said to be ‘elite capture’ as the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) have been saying.
“You cannot say Akufo-Addo is doing elite capture. If he says he is using oil revenues to pay school fees for children, is it elite capture? He says when he assumed office, the school feeding programme covered 1.6 million and has since moved to three million children, is it elite capture?” he quizzed.
“If you look at the expansion of the social relief space, in this country today under Akufo-Addo, is this what you call elite capture. If it is elite capture then it means he wants every Ghanaian to rise up to the level of so-called elites,” he added.
Agyapa In Retrospect
The government, through the MIIF, set up Agyapa Royalties Limited to receive money which the country is supposed to earn from gold royalties.
In exchange, the company will be raising between $500 million and $750 million for Ghana and London Stock Exchanges to invest in developmental projects.
Agyapa Royalties Limited initially was incorporated as Asaase Royalties Limited in a British channel island, Jersey, a tax haven, and will be responsible for managing 75.6 per cent of Ghana’s royalty inflow from the 12 gold mining companies currently operating in the country, with four more preparing to come in.
By Ernest Kofi Adu