Ghana May Lose AGC Golden Share

IT is now almost certain that the government would take a definite decision on Ashanti Goldfields’ golden share issue before the end of this month. A high placed government source told the Network Herald that even though he cannot make a guess until Cabinet finally decides on it, it is likely to receive premium attention due to the importance government attaches to the issue.

That position seemed to have been confirmed by Finance Minister Yaw Osafo Maafo, MP, who told our reporter that all relevant materials in relation to the golden share have been forwarded for Cabinet discussion but refused to be drawn into further comments.

Ashanti management are keen to see the removal of the golden share which empowers the government with 19 per cent share to veto decisions about the company which insiders say is the main stumbling block to the further expansion of the company.

Company sources say : ‘’The golden share is anachronistic. It was put in place to protect Ashanti at a time when it was a one-man company, when the industry dynamics were not as they are today’’.

Ashanti’s main attraction is what company officials claim are significant gold deposits at the Obuasi mines, at depths not yet dug. So despite the reluctance to contemplate the removal of the golden share, AGC management are guardedly optimistic largely based on the NPP government’s much publicised aim of creating the right environment for the business community to operate under the slogan; the golden age of business. ‘’We have received the right noises from the government. But we need more than the right noises’’, the Financial Times December 30. 2001 edition quotes a company official as saying.

Meanwhile, former Mines and Energy Minister, Fred Ohena-Kena, has backed the recent calls for the abolition of the golden share in AGC describing it as a privilege whose usefulness has been overtaken by events in the fast consolidating gold industry. According to Mr. Ohena-Kena a former member of the AGC board, the country’ s mineral and mining law of 1994 is adequate to protect the company as it empowers the sector Minister to consent or not to any investor who intends to take controlling interest in the company.

He told the Network Herald that the NDC government considered abolishing the golden share privilege because it saw it as a hindrance to the growth and expansion of Ashanti. “The golden share could be described as superfluous now that Ashanti operations are spread outside Ghana. In case the Minister of Mines of Tanzania wants something done for his country its absolutely untenable that our government would have a say in what is been done in Tanzania’’, he said.