I will score Ofori-Atta 47% on Agyapa Deal - Mining expert

Mining expert and former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Minerals Commission under former President John Dramani Mahama, Dr. Tony Aubyn, says he will score the Finance Minister 47% on the preliminary work on the Agyapa Royalties deal.

According to him, the negative perception and engagement deficit which Ken Ofori-Atta did not do well have eroded confidence in the deal by stakeholders.

“The perception is also important. Now the Minister [Ken Ofori-Atta] has also admitted that there was some perception deficit, engagement deficit, so they are going to address that. I will give them 47%”, he disclosed on an Accra based radio station monitored by MyNewsGh.com

“I think that the perception and the political-economic issues were not addressed properly; and here I'm talking about economic policy or action that actually has taken away the political side, the perception side”, he further said.

Continuing, Dr Aubyn said “you know perceptions are realities. I was happy that now he has admitted that to the need for consultations, some lack of engagement which has made all these things unnecessary if it had been done earlier.”

“I don’t think that the NGOs and the opposition parties will have agitated against the deal if the benefits was quite clear”, he stressed.

“My level of satisfaction is that we are not going to throw all receipts into the consolidated. We get much less from it”, he noted.