Agyapa Royalties deal has US$2 million outstanding debt – Report

The amount of money the government expended on the botched Agyapa Royalties deal is more than the US$12m reported by the Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF).

Edward Nana Yaw Koranteng recently disclosed the sum to Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Even before the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament could be furnished with details of the expenditure, the breakdown of entities that were paid out of the US$12m sum was published online.

IMANI Africa Vice President Bright Simons published on X (formerly Twitter) a breakdown of how 10 entities, local and international, were paid varying sums that came up to the amount.

The document he shared, however, showed that there was an outstanding sum of US$2m owed some entities at the time the deal was suspended, meaning the amount spent on the books would hit US$14m.

The biggest payment was to Imara Holdings, the transaction advisor on the deal who bagged over US$9.6 million.

Some legal and audit firms were also paid varying sums, plus over US$1.5m paid as staff salaries. The Ghana Stock Exchange was also paid an amount according to the list sighted by GhanaWeb.

The deal to generate funds for crucial infrastructure projects through mineral royalties was halted by President Nana Akufo-Addo in 2021 following concerns raised by civil society groups and the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).