JAK’s Interest – Vodafone Official

A top official of Vodafone, who had access to briefing of meetings between the company and ex-President John Agyekum Kufuor, has expressed “total surprise” at the manner certain sections of the Ghanaian media have handled the matter.

A couple of media house, including The Daily Dispatch, have questioned the way and manner the ex-President had, at least on one occasion, met officials of Vodafone alone.

In a long telephone interview with The Daily Dispatch, the Vodafone official, who said he was making the call in a personal capacity, said it was not unusual for Heads of State to meet them in such instances. He however agreed that it was also unusual for the ex-President to have met Vodafone officials alone, at least, once.

Below are excerpts of the interview:

• Vodafone Official (VO): I am one of the officials who have worked on a number of acquisitions of other phone companies. There have been occasions that Heads of State like Presidents of Prime Ministers have taken part in negotiations.

• Daily Dispatch (DD): at what stage have they become involved, if we may ask?

• VO: such Heads of State usually came in when negotiations between us and the government’s negotiating teams have broken down. In the case of Ghana, President John Kufuor was in from the beginning. I was very surprised when I was informed that he met our representatives alone, in London. That, I must admit, was very unusual.

• DD: One of the reasons quite a number of persons have raised eyebrows is that there had been a number of state owned enterprises who had been privatized in ex-President Kufuor’s eight-year rule but he had never shown interest. Any reason for his intense interest in the Vodafone/GT deal?

• VO: I cannot comment on that. In any case, it is the ex-President or his advisors who can explain his particular interest in the Vodafone/GT transaction.

• DD: there have been allegations that Vodafone might have paid certain inducements to some top Ghanaian officials to facilitate the acquisition of the majority shares in GT. Any comment?

• VO: I cannot comment on that since I was not directly involved in the various negotiations in our acquisition of the shares in GT. However, even the recent decisions by the European Union to discourage businesses from paying kickbacks is a lesson all businesses from indulging in corruption, be it whichever name you will like to give it – consultancy; commission or ex-gratia! The recent Mabey & Johnson case in Ghana and other countries should be a lesson.