Former President John Dramani Mahama has said that his party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) will oppose any move by the Akufo-Addo administration to collateralize the Ghana Heritage Fund (GHF).
John Mahama in a statement said he is picking up signals within the investment community that the government intends to use the GHF as collateral to raise a US$2billion from a consortium of banks.
If this turns out to be true, he said, his party will oppose it the same way they rejected the Agyapa royalties agreement.
In a Facebook post, the 2020 presidential candidate for the NDC said “As I emphasized in my presentation on Ghana at Crossroads: Government must clarify reports which are rife in the investment community that it intends to use the heritage Funds as collateral to raise a US$2billion from a consortium of banks.
“We wish to serve notice that if it turns out to be true, we in the NDC, in the same way that we opposed the Agyapa deal, we cannot support the collateralization of every single source of future revenue just to finance today’s consumption.”
The purpose of the GHF is to provide an endowment to support the development of future generations when the petroleum reserves have been depleted.
To achieve this objective the fund seeks to preserve and enhance the real (inflation-adjusted) purchasing power of the fund over the long term.
