Former President John Dramani has indicated again that he opposes the Agyapa transaction.
According to him, the arrangement will be harmful for the youth since it will always imply “mortgaging the youth’s future.”
The Agyapa contract, according to the former president, is insensitive because it is a scheme to mortgage the country’s future and Ghana’s youth to support Akufo-current Addo’s ambitions.
In an interview with Cape 93.3FM, Mr. Mahama explained the rationale behind the Agyapa agreement, saying, “They are mortgaging Ghana for everything.” They’ve sold everything in order to obtain loans. They are no longer able to sell anything. It’s our gold that’s left, and that’s what the Agyapa wants to do.”
“Because they see that they’ve sold the cutlery, the chairs in the hallway, and the bed in the bedroom, and they’re looking for the next item to sell.” They’ve decided to sell the windows. That is our gold, which they are attempting to sell at this moment. He bemoaned the fact that “they want to utilize that to go and collect over a billion dollars.”
He said that the government has traditionally received a 10% interest in gold royalties, which the Akufo-Addo administration intends to mortgage for loans to spend today.
He singled out Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, accusing him of being a willing participant because his firm always receives a cut of the loans raised.
According to the 2020 National Democratic Congress (NDC) Presidential Candidate, the government has reaped the most benefits from Ghana’s resources and generated the most revenue, but this has not been reflected in the country’s progress or people’s living conditions.
He claims that President Akufo-Addo has mortgaged the Energy Sector Levy and the GETFund for many years through his cousin, the Finance Minister, putting the burden of payment on the youth, who would be paying the loans for many more years.
“Even though the ESLA bond we supplied was intended to be for five (5) years, they have now extended the latest ESLA bond they did to between 20 and 30 years.” It means that you and I, as well as our descendants and grandchildren, will be responsible for repaying the loan until until 2030. For the next 15 years, GETFund has been mortgaged. This means that all payments we make to GetFUND will be used just to repay the loan, and nothing else,” he explained.
“Our children will pay and pay and pay, but they will never be able to pay in full.” “Our grandkids will succeed them and continue to pay the loans,” he added.
As a result, Mr. Mahama cautioned that “if we do not arrest this trajectory that the government appears to be on, we may reach a point where we would be unable to pay our debts.”
