There will be no lags in new Agyapa deal – Ken Ofori-Atta assures

Minister-designate for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta has assured that the new Agyapa deal will be in the best interest of the country and will address concerns raised by relevant stakeholders.

Responding to questions during his appearance before Parliament’s Appointments Committee Thursday, he noted that a new mineral resource deal will be submitted to Parliament for debate and necessary inputs from the legislative arm of government

“As we look at the new normal in which there seems to be quite a bit of debt by all countries, what do we do to our natural resources to leverage it into equity? And I think that is a question we have to face.

“As to how that is mobilized and the issues to contend with, I think that is the more reason why the President want to submit the new deal to Parliament so that the issues are discussed.

“But philosophically, I hope we are all going to come to terms with the reality of diversifying how we capitalize and fund our nation as we intend to do,” the Minister-designate said.

This follows a Corruption Risk Assessment conducted by the former Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu arguing that consultations over the mineral arrangement were not comprehensive and wide-reaching enough.

According to him, the appointment of advisors for the agreement was not transparent like it ought to be.

However, Mr Ofori-Atta emphasised that resubmitting the deal back to Parliament will help the country to achieve a national consensus-building in order to clear all doubts pertaining to the contract.