Gabby Asare Ochere-Darko
Issues have started popping up about government’s involvement in the $10billion ‘Hope City’ project being undertaken by Ghanaian telecommunication and ICT giant, rlg.
Policy think-tank Danquah Institute (DI) believed there was more to the project than what Ghanaians had been fed with.
According to a statement issued by the Institute, “details of this partnership are extremely scanty” and that “the public interest in this PPP (public-private partnership) must not be belittled.”
It cited the STX housing debacle in which government was to raise money ($10billion) for an entirely private venture.
It was stated in one of the brochures issued to guests who attended the launch of the Hope City project that the $10billion project was being done “in collaboration with the Government of Ghana, as part of the National Development Policy Framework”.
President John Mahama equally reinforced the involvement of the government in the project when he stated at the sod-cutting ceremony last week, “I want to assure that government will offer the necessary support to rlg…”
This was what seemed to have triggered the DI to start raising questions about the project.
“We, at the Danquah Institute, wish to find out from government and indeed, rlg communications, what is the nature of the commitments, financially and the like, that government is making, on behalf of the Ghanaian people, towards this $10billion project,” it said.
It also sought to ascertain if, like the failed STX Korean deal, the government of Ghana was required to issue a sovereign guarantee for this new project to build a technology centre and the details therein, together with the cost of realizing this project on the public purse.
But Corporate Affairs Manager of rlg Emmanuel Arthur insisted, “It is strictly a private thing; it’s not something that has any government involvement.”
rlg’s Denial
In explaining the aspect of rlg’s collaboration with government, Arthur told DAILY GUIDE, “What we meant was that we have the blessings of the government of Ghana in doing something like this and that fits into what as a nation we have decided to do.”
“No matter what we do, we will not get $10billion from Ghana government…so what we are going to do is to look elsewhere, especially across our borders and see if we can raise money from there. We are specifically looking at constituting what we call syndication; an international partnership if we can get them to raise some money to support us,” he emphasized.
Mr Arthur therefore noted that the only thing they were expecting from government was a tax exemption since they had appealed to the President for a relief.
“So in our mind, we know that the only way we are going to get support from government is through tax reliefs. We don’t expect that government will give us even $1billion of the $10billion because we know if government had money, all of us will not be sleeping in darkness; all of us will not be without LPG gas,” he emphasized.
Interestingly, pressure group, Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) has commended rlg for what it described as “its sterling innovation with regard to the Hope City project”.
As a group that prides itself with the tenets of public advocacy and believes the private sector is the engine of growth, AFAG noted, “The spirited determination of rlg gives true meaning to our forefathers’ belief that Ghanaians as eagles have the skies as the limit, and given the opportunity, we can always excel.”
This was contained in a statement issued in Accra yesterday.
“The onus lies on government to give various tax reliefs and other incentives to this company; one of our own, just like how other foreign companies have enjoyed in times past,” it stated, adding, “It is no longer true that the friendly reception of the Ghanaian only abounds for the foreigner whilst our own suffer from insufficient attention and easy talk by government.”
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