Agyapa Phase 2 In The Offing, As Akufo-Addo Appoints New MIIF CEO

President Akufo-Addo has appointed an investment banking expert, Edward Nana Yaw Koranteng, as Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF), amidst speculations that the President may have set in motion a masterplan to reactivate the fraudulent Agyapa Royalty deal.

MIIF was the main vehicle for cooking up the scandalous Agyapa deal with Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta and President Akufo Addo as the main champions of the deal that is using a faceless group of private investors in a tax haven to hijack Ghana’s seeks entire mineral royalties.

The deal had been flagged locally and internationally as extremely corrupt, with Transparency International warning the British financial sector to reject the deal when the deal is tabled for listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). 

Despite the widespread condemnation of the deal, the Akufo Addo administration has maintained its stance that it will reactivate it. President Akufo Addo himself had publicly said Agyapa will be repackaged and reintroduced in Parliament after the serious allegations forced Parliament to put the deal on hold.

 The pro-government Asaase Radio based in Accra has reported that the appointment of a new CEO for MIIF was consolidated this week, where Mr. Koranteng took over from Yaw Baah, who had been CEO since 2019.

Unconfirmed information picked up by Whatsup News indicates that Mr. Koranteng is the new henchman to reactivate the controversial Agyapa deal which former Special Prosecutor, Martin A.B.K Amidu claimed President Akufo Addo has a personal interest in.

 MIIF was first established in 2018 to manage the equity interests of Ghana in mining companies and in turn receive royalties on behalf of the government.

However, its formation has been the source of controversy, especially when the government sought to convert it into a special purpose vehicle to collateralize its receipts for a US$500million loan through the infamous Agyapa which had been suspiciously registered in a notorious tax haven in Jersey on the British Virgin Islands.

An assessment by former Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu revealed serious corruption conflict of interest and opacity from the Finance Minister and the Jubilee House.

In fact, Amidu had resigned stating his strong reservations that President Akufo Addo had personally sought to arm-twist him in “shelving” the damning corruption assessment report he prepared.

In his parting shot, Amidu described President Akufo Addo as the “mother serpent” of corruption.

Independent Investigations by Whatsup News in 2020 had revealed that the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) called Agyapa Royalties has a relationship with a company called the Pan African Capital Group which incidentally has a link to Databank Financial Services-the private company of Finance Minister Ofori-Atta.

Additional probes by Whatsup News at the Registrar-General’s Department indicate that the supposed subsidiary of Agyapa Royalties called ARG Royalties Limited has its CEO and director Yaw Baah, who doubled as the CEO of MIIF at the time.

Background checks on Yaw Baah revealed that he was a UK-based lawyer and a Senior Research Fellow at the Danquah Institute (DI), a policy think-tank founded by Gabby Asare-Otchere Darko, President Akufo Addo’s controversial cousin who is regarded as his main advisor in the Kitchen cabinet at the Jubilee House.

Again, Mr. Baah also worked closely in the research department of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP)’s 2016 campaign.

More checks also revealed that another director of ARG Royalties is called Felicia Ashley, a former Vice President and Head of Human Capital and Administration at Ken Ofori-Atta’s Databank. Ms. Ashley was later moved to the Finance Ministry to work directly under the tutelage of Ofori-Atta.

On Wednesday, July 22, 2020, the Parliamentary Finance Committee and the Majority parliamentarians on the side of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) secretly pushed through contentious amendments to the MIIF Act to basically incapacitate the Ghanaian government from being able to probe the dealings of Agyapa/Asaase Royalties with the countries mining royalties it receives.