Absolutely nothing will stop the Agyapa deal, says Ken Ofori-Atta

The Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has declared that absolutely nothing will stop the Agyapa Royalties agreement from being implemented.

“Because of forward-looking statement, I can only assure you that we will do it this year. We continue to explain to get people to understand where we are coming from and where we are going, and how this is good for the country,” he said.

“The roadshow continues. As we talk to investors now, most of the [negotiations] are done via Zoom on a daily basis, as we begin to now determine at what pricing would we be able to go – almost 0.6 times net asset value towards 3.2 times net asset value – and then we strike a price at the right time.”

Ken Ofori-Atta was speaking to Kojo Mensah and Nana Yaa Mensah on this morning’s Asaase Breakfast Show. The minister focused on topics relating to the Ghanaian economy and the Agyapa Royalties deal.

Make documents public

There had been reports in the media suggesting that the government had suspended the Agyapa agreement following a meeting on Wednesday (2 September) between civil society organisations and the Minister for Finance.

The groups, numbering 15, had called on President Akufo-Addo last week to suspend the Agyapa Royalties agreement until all documents relating to the deal are made public.

However, reacting to the CSOs’ concerns after a meeting at the Ministry of Finance, Ofori-Atta said although the ministry has taken on board some of the suggestions the CSOs made, the government is clear in its mind that the Agyapa deal is in the country’s best interests.

He added: “We have taken a lot of suggestions from our interaction with the civil society groups, but we are clear in our mind that the Agyapa Royalties deal is a good one for the country.”

Target: $1 billion

The agreement between the Government of Ghana, the Minerals Income Investment Fund, Agyapa Mineral Royalties Ltd and ARG Royalties Ltd centres around transactions to monetise gold royalties entered into under the Minerals Income Investment Fund Act 2018 (Act 978).

The target is for the royalties to be used to establish a company, shares in which will be floated on the London Stock Exchange. The government anticipates that the initial public offering will make immediately available US$500 million once executed, with another $500 million to follow.

Fred Dzakpata

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