Agyapa Is Not A Royalty Company! Former Chamber of Mines Boss Fires

Contrary to impressions created by the Akufo Addo administration, the scandalous Agyapa Royalties company registered in a notorious tax haven to collect Ghana’s mineral royalties is not a Royalties company and should not be described as such says, experts.

This revelation is made by Kofi Ansah is  the founding Chief Executive of the Minerals Commission and Fui Tsikata, a lawyer with 45 years of experience in mineral and energy law and policy. 

The two penned down their rejection of Agyapa as a Royalty company in an article published widely over the weekend.

“We have heard it said that Agyapa will operate as a royalty company. In the industry, a royalty company is one that funds mining projects and, normally, in return receive royalties from the revenue that those projects yield. The fact that Agyapa is being assigned royalties payable to Government does not, by itself, make it a royalty company,” the two said in their joint statement.

“If Government and the MIIF have decided that Agyapa would operate as a royalty company in the conventional sense, this presumably means that a business plan has been developed identifying prospects the company will fund, with an analysis of what those projects will yield. If such a business plan exists, we would be very interested in looking at it as, we are sure, would the Ghanaian public.”

The Akufo Addo under very curious circumstances had registered Agyapa Royalties in Jersey, a notorious tax haven on the British Channel Islands and had claimed the company, whose main directors are still being kept under wraps, will receive almost US$ 200 million of Ghana’s mining royalties.

Agyapa is a creation of the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF). The promoters of the deal at the Ministry of Finance and the Jubilee House are claiming Agyapa will be listed on stock markets in Ghana and London and 49% of equities of the company will go to private investors, while Ghana holds 51%. Ghana’s 51% equity is not assured as it has been pointed out that the dynamics of the company will change as soon as it lists on the stock markets.

Already, there are serious suspicions in Ghana that individuals linked to the government, particularly at the Jubilee House and the Finance Ministries are behind the Agyapa Royalties scheme, hence the reason why a tax haven was chosen to register it. 

Last week, Mr. Kofi Ansah and Fui Tsikata had issued a joint statement calling for the deal to be halted because it smacked of possible attempt at “elite capture”.

“If Government and the MIIF have decided that Agyapa would operate as a royalty company in the conventional sense, this presumably means that a business plan has been developed identifying prospects the company will fund, with an analysis of what those projects will yield. If such a business plan exists, we would be very interested in looking at it as, we are sure, would the Ghanaian public,” they said, noting that there is no assurances to the benefits to Ghana by the promoters of the deal.