The Executive Director of Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) has jumped to the defence of Bright Simons, who has been criticised for not having the expertise to scrutinise the Agyapa Royalties deal.

Prof H. Kwesi Prempeh has said Mr Simons does not need to have expertise in investment banking to be able to offer constructive criticism on the agreement that has now become controversial.

“In this matter of Agyapa Royalties, they say Bright Simons is not an investment banker. So what? Why is that even part of the discussion?” The respected Law Professor asked in a post on his Facebook page.

He added: “Any suggestion…that a man of Bright Simons' learning and experience, an investor and entrepreneur to boot, cannot or does not understand this fairly simple Agyapa deal enough to debate its promoters is just ludicrous.”

On Saturday, August, 29, 2020, a Deputy Finance Minister, Charles Adu-Boahen, suggested that some of the critics of the deal, especially the Honorary Vice President of IMANI Africa, Bright Simons, does not have the requisite expertise in investment banking to do so.

According to Mr Adu-Boahen, many of the decisions that went into finalising the deal that seeks to leverage Ghana’s mineral revenues for primary capital on the international market are informed by sound investment banking principles.

However, in the post on his Facebook page, Prof Prempeh said whether or not Bright Simons is an investment banker should not be part of the discussions about the deal.

“Investment banking is a career or a job some people choose to do for a living. It is not some exclusive, impenetrable field that persons who do not make a living in it cannot understand or master. Investment bankers come from all manner of backgrounds: engineering, law, accounting, medicine, maths, other hard sciences, economics, the liberal arts, music, humanities, you name it.

“Moreover, the clients for whom investment bankers work for are rarely ever themselves masters of investment banking,” he said.

Below is the full post by Prof H.Kwesi Prempeh