A professor of Finance at the University of Ghana Business School has advised the government to rebrand the Agyapa Mineral Royalty deal before reintroducing it to parliament.
Professor Godfred A. Bokpin said a rebrand will be beneficial in helping Members of Parliament and Civil Society Organisations (CSO) see the deal in a new light.
This, he said, was because of the bad press the name Agyapa had earned following its first introduction to Parliament.
He also advised the government to revise the deal and urged parliament to give the executive the benefit of the doubt as it reintroduces the deal.
Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile Saturday, Prof. Bokpin said, “I am open to the idea of Agyapa coming back and I would urge that we give government the benefit of the doubt to see the revisions that have been made.
“But I would suggest, that given – not only from the minority – given the position of civil societies, academics, and others, government would take another look, a critical look at whatever form they intend to present it to parliament and incorporate that.
“And if possible, because you see for branding purposes, the name Agyapa immediately resurrects so many things now given what has happened. So I would suggest that government should take another look at the branding also and then the content because situating the discussion between the broader context of revenue monetization, commodity, commoditization, and all of that, I think it’s not new.”
According to him, the idea of the Agyapa deal isn’t bad and should rather be encouraged as it has been done for other sectors and commodities.
“I think we’ve done that with Cocoa, we’ve done that with other commodities and natural resources, so there is a context to that. In fact in 2017, 2018, the IMF had a reason to say that government’s excessive revenue monetization needs to be looked at again.
“I mean that drive is there. And it’s largely because our revenue envelope remains dwarfed so we’re looking at the best way, the optimal way to maximize the alternative uses of that so within that context I’ll say that I’m open.”
