Chairman of the Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas, Dr Steve Manteaw has asked the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to suspend the controversial Agyapa Royalties deal for further consultations to be done it.

Dr Manteaw believes that the deal, in its current form, is bad for Ghana hence, should be put on hold.

“The president must suspend this controversial Agyapa deal for further consultations in order to build public trust in it,” Dr Manteaw said in a Facebook post on Sunday, August 30.

He had earlier noted that the government of Ghana and Parliament rushed in approving the controversial Agyapa Royalties agreement.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, August 25, Dr Manteaw said: “What we are telling government is let’s slow down…let’s have more transparency, more consensus building around the approach before we go forward with the approach.

“I don’t know of any national emergency that warrants that we should rush the process to raise funds for development.”

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta dismissed claims that the government rushed the Agyapa Royalties agreement.

He said discussions and deliberations on the deal started as far back as in 2018, therefore it cannot be described as an agreement that was prepared hastily.

“The deal was not rushed because we have been working at this since 2018 which it has been very public regards to parliamentary. I am sure we can always do more,” he said at a press conference on Thursday, August 27.

“As we are saying we are a government that for the first time the Ministry of Finance has signed a partnership agreement with trade unions and labour in which we look at our economic policies before we even come out.”