Publication on French billionaire controlling Ghana’s ports false - Former GPHA Boss

A former Director-General of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), Richard Anamoo, has refuted claims that French billionaire, Vincent Bolloré has monopoly of the country’s ports.

A publication made by the Africa Confidential accused Bolloré of manipulating the system to win a contract to run a container terminal at the Tema Port through a 70 percent joint-owned venture between Ghana’s government and Meridian Ports Services (MPS).

Reacting to the report, former GPHA boss Richard Anamoo said the publication is false and factually inaccurate.

“I thought there was something really confidential about the report. But, unfortunately, when I read it, it was basically the report of the ministerial committee. I didn’t see anything that was really confidential because all the information in that paper is already in the public domain. Making it look like the ports in West Africa are controlled by Bolloré is absolutely false.

Apart from this, Ghana’s port is not only the Tema port. It’s both the Tema and Takoradi ports, and our vision is to grow these ports and Bolloré is not in the Takoradi port. So all those claims in the report are not supported by any evidence,” he told Citi News.

Mr.Anamoo also downplayed parts of the report that claimed Bolloré Africa Logistics and foreign partners persuaded the government to breach procurement laws.

“I am not defending Bolloré, but these are factual matters because they elected to help West Africa and spend their resource on developing port infrastructure. So if we have been successful, I do not see that as something that is worrying. The report has not stated anywhere that there is an exclusion of laws that prevented any companies from bidding.”

The Africa Confidential also mentioned that Ghana’s equity in MPS was surreptitiously cut from the initially agreed 30 to 15 percent.

It revealed that MPS overstated its planned investment leading to tax holidays of $832 million from Ghana’s parliament.

But the former GPHA Head described these claims as falsehood and provided further explanation.