Agyapa deal: Nana Addo jabs Mahama over 'Akyem Mafia' and 'Sakawa Boys' tag

Mahama on his Facebook timeline shared a post by the Member of Parliament for Bolga Central, Isaac Adongo, who said the Agyapa deal, a Mineral Royalty Limited agreement with the government of Ghana which dominated the media landscape is a "big fraud on Ghana" by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the Akyem Mafia.

The MP said the controversial deal is a move by the President and some group of appointees in his government he refers to as Akyem Mafias to defraud the state and accused the President and his kith of forming a families-and-friends cartel to capture the mineral resources of the state via the deal.

But the President at a meeting with the Ghana Catholic Bishops' Conference at the Jubilee House on Friday, August 4, 2020, said identified groups and Ghanaians should condemn the comments.

He said he was 'very disturbed' by the ethnocentric tagging his ethnic group but also said, 'that is the kind of language we don't want in our politics.

READ MORE: The next NDC gov't will not respect Agyapa deal - Mahama

"The comments made by my opponent [John Mahama] 'Ayem Sakawa' people I have not heard any public figure in this country comment on it. it is completely unacceptable. If I wake up to make such a comment about Northerners or Gonjas you can imagine the uproar that will be in the country. A former President of Ghana you can call a group of Ghanaians 'Sakawa' people and it involves the group of a sitting President," he added.

He said: "His statement has been passed without comments from groups. At the same time, we have been told to bring the politics of insults to an end. We need to focus on this matter in an even-handed way."

In 2018, Parliament passed the Minerals Income Investment Fund Act 2018 which establishes the Fund to manage the equity interests of Ghana in mining companies, and receive royalties on behalf of the government.

The fund is supposed to manage and invest these royalties and revenue from equities for higher returns for the benefit of the country.

The law allows the fund to establish Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) to use for the appropriate investments. Last month, the government introduced an amendment to the act to ensure that the SPVs have unfettered independence.

The approval will enable the country to use a special purpose vehicle, Agyapa Royalties Limited to secure about $1 billion to finance large infrastructural projects.

In line with that, Agyapa, which will operate as an independent private sector entity, will be able to raise funds from the capital market, both locally and internationally, as an alternative to the conventional debt capital market transactions.

The deal has since received condemnation from Ghanaians which they demanded a suspension of the deal until all documents relating to the beneficial owners of the deal are disclosed.