Chairman of the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF), George Mireku Duker has noted massive employment creation as part of the significance of the Agyapa Mineral Royalties deal.
The deal has come under intense scrutiny from opposition parties, CSOs, several Ghanaian experts citing conflict of interest with former president John Dramani Mahama stating it is shrouded in secrecy.
Explaining on Peace FM’s ‘Kokrokoo’ morning show, Mr Duker said “we want to establish some Ghanaian-owned mining companies to invest into mining concessions to set up big mining companies to also undertake developmental projects in Ghana. This is to ensure our gold remains in Ghana for us to get local champions within the mining industry in Ghana.”
He added, ”the equity share means we have opened our gold company and if you’re interested, then any entity in the world can invest in the company so we can open other mining companies within Africa and more especially Ghana in order to create employment opportunities for people and when we gain profits, we pay dividends to the shareholders. This will discourage the attitude of borrowing and pay interest which will become a burden for posterity. With this deal, we won’t pay interest but rather dividends.”
Source: GhanaFeed.com