Kwame Asare Obeng (A-Plus)
Minority rejects 2022 budget
Minority wants Agyapa deal removed from 2022 budget
Some majority MPs against Agyapa deal, says A Plus
One time sympathizer of the ruling New Patriotic Party, Kwame Asare Obeng, alias A Plus, has alleged that government has resolved to withdraw the controversial Agyapa deal from the 2022 budget.
The Agyapa Gold Royalties deal which the government has failed on several occasions to get parliament’s approval for was captured in the 2022 budget as part of the government’s economic plans and policies for the upcoming year.
After the minority cited the deal as one of its reasons for rejecting the budget last Friday, Kwame A Plus in a Facebook post has alleged that the government has finally agreed to drop the Agyapa deal from the 2022 budget statement.
According to the musician cum politician and activist, some members of the current government are jubilant about the development. He further indicates that some of the MPs on the majority side were willing to vote against the budget because of the Agyapa deal.
“Information I’m receiving from my friends in the majority who sounded very jubilant is that, “Agyapa” has been removed from the budget.
“Even if they voted they would have lost. Some of their own people are angrier than the minority,” he shared on his Facebook page.
A one-sided minority house of parliament on Friday, November 27, 2021, voted to reject the 2022 budget presented by the minister of finance after the majority side staged a walkout before voting on the budget was conducted.
The minority as part of their decision cited several inputs in the budget as the basis for rejecting the budget.
The minority has since made some demands on the government as a precondition to approving the budget.
Key amongst their demands is the removal of the Agyapa Gold Royalties deal from the budget.
Speaking on the deal on GhanaWeb TV’s #SayItLoud, Minority Member of Parliament for Cape Coast South, George Kwaku Ricketts Hagan noted that despite their disagreement with the deal, the government sought to smuggle it into the budget.
“The other thing was the way the Agyapa deal was smuggled into the budget. We were not happy with it and we wanted the government to look at it. Basically, to remove it and bring it at an appropriate time when we actually want to bring back Agyapa again,” he explained.
The Agyapa Royalty deal was proposed by the government last year to raise funds through mineral royalties for key infrastructure projects.
However, the government’s effort to get parliament’s approval for the deal has so far proved futile.
Watch Ricketts Hagan speak on the minority’s position on the budget on #SayItLoud below: