Stakeholders in the mining sector have called for broader stakeholder consultation on the Agyapa Royalties Agreement to ensure that the country is not shortchanged. To them, the suspension of the Agyapa Royalty deal until proper measures are taken to ensure citizens benefit is good for the nation and the citizenry.
Executive Director for Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC), Dr. Steve Manteaw, noted that Ghana has lots of natural resources that could be tapped to bring about development of the country and that the proper use of the resources would grow the nation.
“Ghana has been mining gold since the Gold Coast day but still poor as a result of mismanagement of the mineral resources available. The mineral resources are for the people of Ghana and that citizens must benefit from it.
Lack of proper consultation on the issue, transparency and accountability arrangements could derail the intention for the deal and the country might lose tremendously from it. We must protect our collective interest against that of the politician hence the urgent need to reject this deal,” he said.
This came to light in Tamale, the Northern regional capital for some selected media personnel drawn from the Northern, Savannah and the North-East regions of Ghana to be educated and deliberate on the deal’s procurement, processes and repercussion on the citizen of Ghana.
The forum, which was also aimed at enhancing the knowledge of the media to help propagate the impact of the Agyapa Royalties deal on citizen’s welfare, was organized by the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) in collaboration with Africa Center for Energy Policy (ACEP) with funding from the Oxfam.
The media, who were taken through the deal and its impact in Ghana after the presentation, observed that despite the country’s share in the stake, it has no voice in decision making and also only the leadership would benefit from the deal and not the citizenry and therefore the need for government to halt the deal for now.
Executive Director for ACEP, Benjamin Boakye commended the media for their commitment but urged them to make an effort to ensure that citizens are made aware of the deal for proper understanding. “The Investment Agreement does not set a timeframe for royalties flow to Agyapa under the assigned leases which poses danger and uncertainty to the country’s mineral resources,” he said.
Executive Secretary for GACC, Beauty Emefa Nartey, said the workshop was to educate the media persons on the judicious use of Ghana mineral resources amidst Agyapa.
She urged the media to have in-depth knowledge of the deal before propagating to the general public on the implications of the agreement and the need for government to reconsider its position on the deal.
