Businessman and Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Sir Samuel Esson Jonah
Jonah says government always uses revenue from mine to balance the budget
Ghanaian ownership of companies key to Ghana’s development – Sam Jonah
No Ghanaian owns 1% of the top companies in the country
Businessman and Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Sir Samuel Esson Jonah, has indicated that most communities in Ghana are underdeveloped because the government has always been living beyond the means of the country.
According to Sam Jonah, because successive governments have continuously lived beyond their means, they have been using proceeds from the country’s mining sector to balance the country’s budget, at the expense of the development of communities in the country, especially mining communities.
“When we listed the company (Ashanti Golds Limited) in 1994, the government whose interest was 45 percent reduced it to 30 percent, and for the 15 percent, they took US$330 off the table cash. If even $100 million had been spent in Obuasi, Obuasi would have been a different place."
“But it went to buy gold to balance the budget because consistently we have been leaving live beyond our means,” he said in an interview with GBC, monitored by GhanaWeb.
He added that another reason why Ghana was not developing faster was that most of the major companies in the country are owned by foreigners who take all the profit they recoup outside the country.
“Look at your mobile telecommunication companies, whether it is MTN, whether it is Airtel, there is no Ghanaian that who has one percent of any of them. Look at the banks, there are either Nigerian Owned or Standard Chartered, Barclays all of them foreign-owned. Look at the mines, there is no Ghanaian who has 1 percent of the mines, no Ghanaian, it is a fact.
“There is no Ghanaian who owns one percent of the Oil, Tullow or whatever. So, when Tullow takes their money where do you think they are going to put it, outside,” he said.
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