John Mahama kicks against Agyapa deal

Former President John Dramani Mahama has re-stated his opposition to plans to re-introduce what President Nana Akufo-Addo terms an Agyapa deal. The deal he says will be bad for the youth, because it will invariably mean “mortgaging the future of the youth”.

According to the former president, the Agyapa deal is outright inconsiderate because it is a plan to mortgage the future of the country and Ghana’s youth to fund Akufo-Addo’s present day desires.

Explaining the rationale behind the Agyapa scheme in an interview on Cape 93.3FM, Mr. Mahama said, “they are mortgaging Ghana for everything. They have sold everything for loans. Now they don’t have anything to sell anymore. It is our gold that is left, that is the Agyapa they want to do”.

“Because they see that they’ve sold the utensils, they’ve sold the chairs in the hall, the bed in the bedroom has been sold, now they are looking for the next item to sell. They have settled on the windows to sell. That is our gold, which they want to sell this time. They want to use that to go and collect over one billion dollars”, he lamented.

He said government has always received a 10% stake as gold royalties, which royalty the Akufo-Addo government is intent on mortgaging for loans to spend today.

He fingered the President’s cousin, Ken Ofori-Atta, accusing him of being a happy participant in the abuse because his company always gets a percentage from the loans raised.

The 2020 National Democratic Congress (NDC) Presidential Candidate said the government has benefited the most from Ghana’s resources and accrued the most revenue, but this has not reflected in the development of the country, and on the living standards of the people.

He observed that President Akufo-Addo, through his cousin the Finance Minister, has mortgaged the Energy Sector Levy and the GETFund for many years, which he says imposes the burden of payment on the youth who would be paying the debts for many more years to come.

“Even though the ESLA bond we brought was supposed to be for five (5) years, today the last ESLA bond they did they have extended it to between 20 – 30 years. It means you and I; our children and our grandchildren will continue paying the loan until beyond 2030. GETFund has been mortgaged for the next 15 years. This means all contributions we pay for GetFUND will only go toward paying loan and not for anything else”, he disclosed.

“Our children will pay and pay and pay but won’t be able to finish paying. Our grandchildren will take over from them and continue paying the debts” he added.

Mr. Mahama therefore warned that “If we don’t halt this trend government appears set on, it will get to a point where we can no longer pay our debts.”

Watch excerpts of the interview here: