Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has said the Agyapa Royalties agreement provides government with the opportunity to use innovative ways to manage and maximize the country’s mineral wealth.
According to him, the current arrangement where the value multinational companies in Ghana’s extractive industry are assessed by basic indicators such as taxes rather “ignores many of the different ways in which the countries that extract the resources utilise their rights beyond and outside of our borders as a means of creating value.”
Speaking at Finance Ministry on August 28, he explained that the novel model of the deal which has caused an uproar among the minority is a tactic that has been adopted by the west adding that it is critical that Ghana gets ahead of the queue in adopting similar approaches to maximise the country’s wealth potential.
“This desire to domesticate our expectations when operating in the global market only adds to hurt and limits developing economies.”
He made these assertions in the company of his deputy, Charles Adu Boahen, the Information Ministry among other top government officials where he sought to demystify any negative impression of the deal.
Mr Ofori-Atta also explained that any suggestion that government has an ill-intent through the use of this Special Purpose Vehicle is far from the truth.
He was emphatic that the governing NPP is determined to break the economy free from “old boundaries.”
“If the foreign investor can use the recoverable reserves in our country he has in a concession granted us, to him to raise money which he can choose to spend here or on other businesses he has elsewhere, why can’t we do the same to maximize to maximize the benefits we get and use that additional income to accelerate our development and by so doing, expand our economy.”
The new agreement will enable the country to use a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), Agyapa Royalties Limited, to secure about $1 billion to finance large infrastructural projects.
The agreement said to be in line with the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) Act, 2018 (Act 978), was passed without support from the Minority in Parliament.
Meanwhile, Deputy Finance Minister Charles Boahene says money being raised from the Agyapa Royalties deal will be invested in key infrastructural projects in the country, with a special focus on the mining communities.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, he said investments in these areas will help create more value along the gold value chain.
“We want to focus on investing in 4 broad key areas. Primary capital expenditures in education, in health, in housing and in infrastructure,” he said.
