It’s a lie: Kuffuor denies Tony Aidoo’s claim he destroyed Ashanti Goldfields

• Posted on December 6, 2013December 6, 2013
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

EX-President J.A. Kuffuor has denied Dr Tony Aidoo’s assertion that he destroyed Ghana’s only indigenous mining firm of international repute – The Ashanti Goldfields Corporation (AGC) – by selling off its veto power.

Dr Aidoo, the Head of Policy, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Presidency, had Wednesday accused the former President’s NPP administration of selling “the 25 per cent golden shares” that gave the Government of Ghana veto over any corporate decision taken by the company.

“At the end of the day, all our shares evaporated into thin air. I was holding GH?4 million shares… at the end of it, the value of my share was Gh?4000. It was completely destroyed” he told Accra-based Joy FM, adding that it was irresponsible on the part of the administration to have disposed of the veto.

But in a response Thursday on Joy FM, Mr Frank Agyekum, the spokesman for Mr Kufuor, said Dr Aidoo had been inaccurate in his assertion.

Mr Agyekum said the claim that the NPP sold off AGC’s golden shares was false, stressing that the NPP government rather increased the shares.

He said: “By the time NPP came into office in 2001, Ghana’s shares in the Goldfields had dwindled to 15 per cent valued then at $120 million. The NPP government subsequently entered into a merger with AngloGold, which increased Ghana’s shares from $120 million that we came to meet to over $300 million. So there is no way for him to say that government has sold Ghana’s shares and has done something wrong. We increased the shares from $120 million to about $300 million… actually it was over $300 million then.”

According to Mr Agyekum, the government also doubled Ghana’s representation on the AGC board, increasing it from 1 to 2. He added that the name ‘Ashanti’ was also maintained as part of the terms of the merger – a development he described as significant.

He, however, could not tell whether the NPP gave up Ghana’s veto power in AGC.

He said to the best of his knowledge, Ghana’s country’s golden shares were maintained while representation on the company’s board was increased, giving the country more control over AGC.

Mr Agyekum went on to accuse the successive NDC government of selling off AGC shares that the NPP administration had bought over a period of 8 years.

“When the DC came into office in 2009, by then, Ghana had bought more shares in AGC, the NDC should subsequently those shares again. So if any government has been in the business of selling shares of Ashanti Goldfields, It’s not NPP,” he said.

-Daily Graphic