‘It must die!’ – Franklin Cudjoe calls for complete liquidation of Agyapa Royalties deal
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
Founding President of policy think-tank IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe has called for the total liquidation of the controversial Agyapa Royalties deal.
In a post shared via X on March 1, 2024, Franklin Cudjoe suggested that the deal, in its entirety, must ‘die’ as it does not auger well for the country’s management of natural resources.
“When is AGYAPA going to be liquidated, literally shut down? It must die!,” Franklin Cudjoe urged.
Conversations and debate surrounding the controversial Agyapa Royalties deal have re-emerged in the public domain after the Chief Executive Officer of the Mineral Income Investment Fund, Edward Koranteng told the Public Accounts Committee that it had expended about $12 million on the suspended deal.
This revelation sparked renewed concerns over the true intentions of the deal which some citizens have labelled as a scam by the Akufo-Addo government.
In August 2020, the government of Ghana proposed to sell the majority of its future gold royalties from mining leases to an offshore company named Agyapa Royalties Limited.
Th company, was registered in the secretive British Crown Dependency of Jersey in the British Islands.
As part of the proposed deal, government planned to sell 49 percent of the shares of this company through a public offering and keep a 51 percent stake.
Although government described the deal as an “innovative financing solution” to maximise the country’s resources and address the debt situation, it valued the gold rights at far less than what they were worth.
This raised alarm bells from various civil society groups and the Minority in Parliament who vehemently kicked against the deal. The President [ Nana Akufo-Addo] subsequently suspended the deal.
In November 2020, the former Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu in a report published highlighted suspected incidences of rigging and corruption, including opening doors for illicit financial flows and money laundering under the proposed Agyapa Royalties deal.
The report also observed that millions of dollars were already paid out to some companies without legally required approvals.
