Ghanaians might remember a recent tweet about rumors that were circulating in the political back alleys of the government of Ghana centered on the function of brokers in the Veep’s lauded “Gold for Oil” policy.
We recently went through a considerable length to highlight the benefits and prospects of the entire flagship initiative.
A gold trading lobby group. Chamber of Bullion Traders, was vehemently lobbying and briefing about their issues regarding the government’s “Gold for Oil” policy and the dangers it exposed the country to
According to their analysts, the government’s plan to grab huge amounts of gold from the small-scale mining industry in order to forward the gold and oil barter agenda could mean the end for some of their members and trigger a slow moving doom for the whole private gold exporting business.
It seems that all of the briefings and counter-briefings have enraged media activists who are opposed to the government for taking the initiative this weekend.
Some of the charges made by WADR, a non-mainstream media company based in Washington,DC, which itself is opposed to the present Ghanaian government policy have been corroborated by some of the briefings circulating in the backdrop of Ghanaian political chatter.
Their assertions are substantiated by invoices and trade documents that identify actors who were mentioned in private briefings as the program’s architects.
According to WADR’s briefing, two incredibly discreet and covert investment bankers and “middle men” who periodically serve as financial advisors to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair are at the center of the intriguing scheme.
Reyhaan Aboo and Prashant Francis are the respective principals for the two aforementioned officials.
The two principals work with UAE -based AlphaStream and London-based Portman Partners, respectively.
They were significant in the operation of Ex Prime Minister’s now dissolved Firerush Ventures.
The major players behind AlphaStream are former employees of JP Morgan who have strong ties to the American Investment bank’s influential Ghanaian network, which includes fund industry experts and former deputy finance minister.
AlphaStream bills itself as a multi-commodity royalty streaming company and has its main investors in a Sovereignty Wealth Fund of the UAE.
This is the the same industry that the disastrous Agyapa deal was birthed from.
In an alleged document leaked by WADR, it reads “The Bank of Ghana has reportedly signed a concealed deal to sell $1.1 billion worth of gold and an undisclosed amount of silver through AlphaStream in a bid to raise cash for the purchase of refined petroleum products”.
They further explained that “ out of an AlphaStream capacity of 18 tons, 502 kilograms of gold and an undefined amount of silver have allegedly been freighted to StoneX’s refinery in UAE by an Emirates plane. The entire value of the shipment is around $33 million based on pro-forma invoice pricing. This corresponds to a rough estimate of $32.8 million, which is equivalent to the price for 41000 metric tons of Rotterdam gasoline mix using CIF basis and the pertinent Argus pricing benchmarks.”
There are many theories, most of which are distasteful as to what precise value AlphaStream adds to straightforward gold export.
As many have stated in the past, the entire “Gold for Oil” policy operates essentially to allegedly “siphon” gold from the Ghanaian private sector companies to sell for billions of dollars in Dubai through politically connected middlemen.
The whole policy could have been credited only to the Ghanaian politician’s insatiable thirst for corruption, however this appears to exceed the level we all know of due to the pedigree of connected parties acting as intermediaries in exchange for a cut of the cake.
We strongly urge the government of Ghana to release all relevant information regarding the policy implementation in full to prevent any further scandal.
Can the African leader ever flee from corrupt business engagements?