Bright Simons, vice president of IMANI Ghana and co-founder of mPedigree, a mobile telephony shortcode platform has taken a shot at Gabby Ochere Darko for attacking his views on the Agyapa deal.
The government of Ghana set up a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to mortgage 75.6% of its royalties from 16mines for about $500million to $750million for development and infrastructure projects. Agyapa Royalties Limited will trade shares on the Ghana Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange for the private market.
However, the agreement has been met with opposition from the NDC , CSOs.
Among those to find issues with the said agreement is Bright Simon. Speaking as a guest on Joy Fm’s Newsfile, Mr Simons stated that after going through the over 300 documents on the agreement, he didn’t find anything worth to praise the the government for.
He further stated that, Ghana’s mineral had been undervalued in the agreement. He also challenged those saying Ghana has a 51% shares in Agyapa Royalty. According to Bright Simon, the country’s percentage in the agreement was not emphatically stated in the agreement.
Gabby Ochere Darko, who happens to be the government’s legal advisor on the agreement, found the vice president of IMANI Ghana position baffling and questioned his opinion.
“We are being invited to trust the researched opinion of Bright Simons and his group against the 80yrs of stock market/asset management experience of Ken Ofori-Atta, Charles Adu-Boahen and Kofi Osafo-Maafo. It’s that simple.” Gabby posted on Facebook.
Mr Simons responded via twitter saying “Ha ha ha ha…At least Mr. Otchere-Darko is always upfront when his interests are concerned. 😅 But this is not a simple asset mgmt issue. It is a NATIONAL ASSETS PROTECTION matter. The CSOs are pitching 1200 YEARS of POLICY experience against that of the named individuals.”
In a related story, Kofi Bentil has said the Agyapa Royalty agreement is terrible and corrupt after analysing it.
“I am in favor of engineering our resource revenues for greater returns as a nation. But after analyzing the Agyapa deal I can say it’s terrible and corrupt!”he wrote on Facebook.
