Ken Ofori-Atta, Finance Minister Alex Mould , a former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), has questioned the decision of the Ministry of Finance to float the majority shares of the controversial Agyapa Royalties deal on the London Stock Exchange instead of the Ghana Stock Exchange.
According to him, the “apocryphal” explanations by the finance minister and his deputy Charles Adu-Boahen have done nothing to ease the minds of Ghanaians.
In an open letter to Ken Ofori-Atta (KOA), the Minister of Finance, Mould argued that if this so-called “novella” truly is for the benefit of the people of Ghana, why not float the majority of the shares of this “wonderful company” Agyapa on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE)?
Mould explained that when the shares are floated on the Ghana Stock Exchange, it will allow Ghanaians to purchase and own at least 75% of what is being offered to prospective investors.
“The remaining 25% that would be floated on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) could be offered exclusively to Ghanaians living in the diaspora in order to be inclusive.
“This is definitely a more patriotic option than selling the 49% to foreign investors, which people are speculating could be limited to a very few select investors, and perhaps mainly to Friends & Family, directly or indirectly – a notion that is not far-fetched, based on your track record from the 2017 bond issuance saga which favoured your friend and partner Franklin Templeton; and excluded Ghanaians in the diaspora from investing,” his letter read.
Paraphrasing Donald Rumsfeld’s quote of there are some known knowns, many known unknowns and even unknown unknowns, Alex Mould indicated that by now, Ghanaians know that Agyapa’s source of funds will be “our royalty revenue; which has been used in past years for budget support and was part of the government’s consolidated fund”.
This revenue, he said, will now be used by Agyapa to invest in other gold companies and in companies that lend money to gold companies worldwide, that is, Gold Royalties or Gold Streaming – the business of lending money to gold mines and being repaid over the life of the loan in gold.
Mould, a former executive director of Standard Chartered Bank Ghana then asked the Minister of Finance: “Why take a risk-free and secure flow of funds (our royalties) and use that to invest in risky, speculative ventures?”
Mould further indicated that the ministry had been explaining […]