Agyapa Deal: Akufo-Addo Government Spent $12 Million On Suspended Royalties Agreement

• The government spent $12 million on the suspended Agyapa royalties deal, according to the Minerals Income Investment Fund
• The CEO of the Minerals Income Investment Fund revealed this expenditure to the Public Accounts Committee
• He said the Ministry of Finance procured the services of international consultancy and companies and financial institutions related to the deal

The government spent $12 million on the suspended Agyapa royalties deal.

The CEO of the Minerals Income Investment Fund, Edward Nana Yaw Koranteng, disclosed this at a Public Accounts Committee sitting.

Koranteng said the cost was part of the process of issuing the initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange.

He said the Ministry of Finance procured international consultancy services, companies, and financial institutions.

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About the Agyapa deal

The Agyapa deal, flagged by a Transparency International report as controversial, is the government's strategy to finance critical infrastructure projects.

In August 2020, the government proposed to sell most of its future gold royalties from mining leases to an offshore company, Agyapa Royalties Ltd, registered in the secretive British Crown Dependency of Jersey in the British Islands. Under the deal, the government would sell almost half of the shares of this company through a public offering and keep a 51% stake.

The government lauded the deal as an innovative financing solution to help ease the country’s debt crisis. Still, experts said the valuation of Ghana’s gold reserves was much lower than what they are worth.

In November 2020, the special prosecutor released a report outlining suspected incidences of rigging and corruption, including opening doors for illicit financial flows and money laundering. Millions of dollars had already been paid to companies without legally required approvals.

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President Nana Akufo-Addo instructed authorities to review the transaction documents and return the proposal to the parliament for approval.

Four Ghanaian Companies Listed Among FT’s Africa’s Fastest Growing Companies 2022

Meanwhile, YEN.com.gh reported in a separate story that some four Ghanaian companies were recorded in the inaugural annual ranking of Africa’s fastest-growing companies compiled by the Financial Times (FT).

The ranking by the New York-based leading global business publication provides a snapshot of the corporate landscape in a continent where technology, fintech, and support-service businesses have had to adapt to a radically altered environment.

In the ranking cited by YEN.com.gh, IT Consortium Ltd, a local fintech company, was ranked in 17th position with an ‘absolute growth rate of 271.4% and a ‘compound growth rate’ of 54.9%. In 2020, the company made a total revenue of $4.6 million, according to the report.

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Source: YEN.com.gh