By: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
The Minister of Finance, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta has revealed that the government has not abandoned the idea of securitizing Ghana’s gold dubbed the Agyapa Royalties deal.
Mr. Ofori-Atta maintained that he still has in his mind the agreement because he believes it is best for the country.
He made the point while addressing Journalists in Accra, at the Minister’s Meet the Press at the Information Services Department Conference room in Accra on Thursday, May 12, 2022.
“My firm philosophical belief really is that the capital markets are meant for something that will lead us to equity resources and we are not leveraging on it. Therefore, it is not the question of whether monetization of mineral royalties or listing of the company is bad or good.”
“It is good because that is how you raise the resources. The question is the process of doing that. If you have a problem with the process just articulate it, let’s cure it but let us not drop something that will be good for us that will reduce our debt exposure. So those are two very different questions. How best to do it as opposed to, don’t do it. My mind is still there, I know the president has mentioned something about that going through the AG, and Parliament to do that”.
“But it is not something that is an asset to the country that one needs to drop, you need to examine all your equity and debt positions and the best choice for the country. We will never have done free SHS if we listened to other people that is 400,000 lives that have a chance to do something, we would have stopped short at e-levy because of the noise, and suddenly we have a tax handle that will be phenomenally important for the country. So we need to look at that.” the Finance Minister said.
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