Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has asked the managers of the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) to be more transparent as they make strides in achieving the objectives for which it was established.
According to the Asantehene they should put in place effective plans towards increasing local investments in the management of the country’s gold assets to maximise value.
The Minerals Income Investment Act was passed in 2018 to, among other things, monetise the country’s mineral resources for the government’s infrastructural development.
It is also to monetise the minerals’ income accruing to the country, develop and implement measures to reduce the budgetary exposure of Ghana to minerals income fluctuations.
The Asantehene was speaking during a courtesy call on him by the Managers of MIIF led by its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Yaw Baah, a former Member of Parliament for Kumawu, in Ashanti.
The meeting gave the opportunity for the CEO to explain the differences of the Agyapa and Obatanpa policies of the government with the former being controlled by the MIIF and the latter by the Finance Ministry.
Otumfuo told the MIIF to provide clarity in their operations saying “it is critical that you let Ghanaians know that the mineral revenues will no more be put into the consolidated fund but that MIIF will invest with it for the benefit of the country”.
When you begin the investment, “we should know how much is going into this project, what the nation is getting out of the mineral revenues that have been invested”, he advised.
The Asantehene courted support for the Agyapa deal, saying “there are several opportunities in Agyapa. Agyapa is fine but how do you do it to generate trust in our own people so that they believe you are doing the right thing, should be your concern”.
Otumfuo Osei Tutu stressed the importance for them to encourage Ghanaians and indigenous companies to understand that they could invest in the MIIF’s operation.
Mr Baah said MIIF was poised toward achieving the objectives envisaged under the Act establishing it.
He said the outfit was positioning itself to change the public narrative by ensuring that “Ghana’s mineral royalties are managed properly to the maximum benefit of the ordinary citizen”.
Apart from the gold, he said, were other minerals such as quarrying, of which “we at MIIF, are working to propel and push to ensure that the nation achieves its objectives.”
Mr Baah underlined that MIIF was drawing its strategic plan to come out with guidelines for investments that would include prospective Ghanaian businessmen and women to be part.
He was hopeful that MIIF would live up to expectation for all and sundry in the country to benefit.
Ghana, he said, “is now the leading producer of gold. We have passed South Africa and other African countries which is great, and there should be a prove of this, we are therefore, poised to do that as we invest with the royalties”.
FROM KINGSLEY E.HOPE, KUMASI
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