Engineers and Planners, the largest Ghanaian contract mining company, owned by President John Mahama’s brother Ibrahim Mahama says it is committed to repaying all loans it contracted from two local banks in 2007. It follows the accusation by the opposition NPP that President Mahama is sacrificing the pensions of Ghanaians to defray debts of Merchant bank because his brother owes Ghc57.2 million, which represents 19 per cent of the total debt of the bank. The NPP also accused SSNIT of offloading its stake to First Rand Bank in South Africa, due to the inability of the bank to retrieve its monies from debtors. But in a statement released Thursday, the company said arrangements have been made to refinance the loan through a multilateral funding agency. Read the full statement issued by Engineers and Planners Engineers & Planners is the largest indigenous (Ghanaian) contract mining company. It was established (set up) in 1997, and employs over 1,500 Ghanaians. It currently operates in Ghana and Liberia and hopes to begin operations in Congo soon. Generally, due to high capital expenditure in the mining industry, most of the mining companies and their contractors obtain financing from both local and international banks, thus creating fees and income for the banks. It is a well-known business strategy in the mining industry to borrow on a long-term basis. Engineers & Planners contracted financing from two local banks during the previous NPP administration as a five-year term loan. Subsequently, for some unknown reason, the banks in 2007 suddenly converted the financing into a three-year term loan. Naturally this created debt repayment difficulties for Engineers & Planners. Under the previous and current administration, arrangements have been made to refinance the loan through a multilateral funding agency. Engineers & Planners is mindful of its confidentiality obligations to third parties regarding the steps that are being taken to re-finance the debt, and therefore is unable to reveal the details of the funding, save to say that it has been approved after due diligence, which proves that Engineers & Planners is a strong and viable company which has robust cash flows to support a well structured financing. The Finance documents have been signed, stamp duty and other fees in excess of GHc 2 million have been paid on all documents and collateral registered here in Ghana. Engineers & Planners remains fully committed to the repayment of the loan, and is hopeful that the funds towards its settlement will be disbursed soon. SIGNED Sulemana Ahmed Amidu (Chief Finance Officer)