Former President John Dramani Mahama has reiterated his stance on the infamous Agyapa deal.
The former President who has long made known his opposition to the deal opined that going through with the deal would mean “mortgaging the future of the youth”.
On Tuesday, October 12, 2021, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta when he inaugurated the newly formed board of the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF), charged them to appropriately address all concerns raised by critics and stakeholders of the Agyapa Royalty Deal before it is submitted to Parliament.
According to the Minister, doing so will make the deal operational and fit for purpose.
“…address and overcome all the concerns against the Agyapa transaction, so we can go to the market and create the first mineral royalty company in Ghana and in Africa because it is good for Ghana.”
But speaking on Cape 93.3FM, Mr Mahama maintains the deal was outright inconsiderate because it was a plan to mortgage the future of the country and Ghana's youth to fund the government’s desires.
"They are mortgaging Ghana for everything. They have sold everything for loans. Now they don't have anything to sell anymore. It is our gold that is left, that is the Agyapa they want to do. Because they see that they've sold the utensils, they've sold the chairs in the hall and the bed in the bedroom, now they are looking for the next item to sell. They have settled on the windows to sell. That is our gold, which they want to sell this time. They want to use that to go and collect over one billion dollars", he lamented.
He noted that the government had always received a 10 per cent stake as gold royalties, which royalty the Akufo-Addo government was intent on mortgaging for loans to spend.
He accused the Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, of being a participant in the abuse because “his company always gets a percentage from the loans raised.”
Mr Mahama, who was the 2020 National Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate, said the government had benefited the most from Ghana's resources and accrued the most revenue but “this has not reflected in the development of the country and on the living standards of the people.”
He claimed that the government had mortgaged the Energy Sector Levy and the GETFund for many years, which imposed the burden of payment on the youth who would be paying the debts for many more years to come.
"Even though the ESLA bond we brought was supposed to be for five years, today the last ESLA bond have been extended to between 20 and 30 years. It means you and I, our children and our grandchildren will continue paying the loan until beyond 2030. GETFund has been mortgaged for the next 15 years. This means all contributions we pay for GETFund will only go toward paying loans and not for anything else", he stated.
Mr Mahama said if that trend was not halted, it would get to a point “where we can no longer pay our debts."
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