Osafo-Maafo scores first victory

The Free Press writes that in a reminiscent move, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo has amply demonstrated a positive economic wizardry by which the European Union (EU) has agreed to waive the sale of the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB).

It said only a week after Parliament confirmed his nomination as the Minister of Finance, Mr Osafo-Maafo has succeeded to impress upon the E.U. to waive the controversial sale of the national bank, a conditionality placed on the Rawlings government under Ghana's privatisation programme. The nation last year forfeited a major EU assistance package valued at eight million Euro due to the country's inability to meet certain conditionalities, including selling GCB.

Last Friday February 2, the Minister disclosed that the government had accordingly set out to review the sale of the bank and, for that matter, has halted all arrangements in relating it. The President, Mr J.A. Kufuor and the E.U. Director of West Africa and Central African Directorate for the European Commission, Mr Friedrich Hamburger, in line with that, held a close-door meeting in Accra.

Mr Osafo-Maafo said that the Government had petitioned the E.U. to reconsider its decision to withdraw the assistance package and it had agreed.

"This, without doubt, is a victory for Ghana, its people, the government and Osafo-Maafo in particular", submits the paper.