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“Mr. Speaker, let me, at this point, assure the House that, in the course of this session of Parliament, Government will come back to engage the House on the steps it intends to take on the future of the Agyapa transaction,” he said when he delivered the State of the Nation Address to Ghanaians in Parliament on Tuesday, March 9, 2021.
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Two years ago, the Parliament of Ghana passed the Minerals Income Investment Fund Act 2018 which establishes the Fund to manage the equity interests of Ghana in mining companies, and receive royalties on behalf of the government.
The fund is supposed to manage and invest these royalties and revenue from equities for higher returns for the benefit of the country.
The law allows the fund to establish Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) to use for the appropriate investments. Last month, the government introduced an amendment to the act to ensure that the SPVs have unfettered independence.
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.
Some said the deals are valued for money while others referred to it that it’s a stinking and corrupt deal by the government where appointees of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) are engaged to do.
The Agyapa Royalties deal is part of the current government’s strategy to beat the long-standing problem of lack of capital for developmental projects.
Civil Society Organisations also kicked against the deal.
The CSOs made an emphatic demand for a suspension of the deal until all documents relating to the beneficial owners of the deal are disclosed.
