AFGO's monopoly will be broken

The six-year monopoly enjoyed by the African Ground Handling Operations (AFGO) in the cargo International Airport will be broken and that is official.

"This issue of monopoly is currently being discussed at the highest level and the decision will soon be made public."

Captain Joe Afriyie Boakye, Director-General of the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), the managers and regulators of the national airspace, made this confident statement in a recent radio interview.

Boakye, who was deputy to Wing Commander Andy Mensah, under the latter's eight-year-old administration, said the decision to break the monopoly is in line with the liberalization policy of the present administration.

It is also to give private entrepreneurs the opportunity to compete in the nascent industry, seen as a potential national breadbasket.

The decision, when confirmed, will effectively end months of speculation and surmising generated over the monopoly since it came to the fore soon after the December elections.

It is also expected to serve as a shot in the arm for the campaign of private entrepreneurs led by the Association of Ghanaian Private Airline Operators (AGPA) who have opposed the monopoly from the very beginning.

"We are in a new dispensation. This administration favours liberalization to monopoly and that is what is going to happen," he stated.

The decision to award AFGO a monopoly to perform ground handling and under wing operations at the nation's premier airport was conceptualized in 1993. It was not until a year later that it was registered and awarded the contract by the government of the National Democratic Congress, (NDC).

AFGO, it is believed, belongs to Mr. Marwan Traboulsi, a Syrian national and friend of ex-President Jerry Rawlings.

Two organizations, namely Ghana Airways and United Ghana Handling Limited, which is a coalition of indigenous Ghanaian entrepreneurs, have received the green light to commence operations alongside AFGO's.