Ghana's quadruple ban

It was all joy among the majority of Ghanaians witnessing the swearing-in of President Nana Addo Dankwa Addo into office in 2017. To many, Akufo-Addo is the kind of President Ghanaians have been yearning to have and missed for so many years. Ghanaians were hoping that with his economic 'Wizkid' Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Ghanaians would see improved macroeconomic stability, end corruption, promote transparency, and ensure that all Ghanaians enjoy a free life where no one will ever think of sleeping with an eye open.

Unfortunately for Ghanaians, more than worse was what was visited them in the last 7 and half years. All forms of assessment in any area of interest be it macro economy, corruption, infrastructure, etc prove that the previous government under Mahama is over a trillion times better than what we have in our hands right now. We were deceived to exchange our frog for a toad.

Sins we never thought would ever be associated with this government have taken the front seat on the bus. We witnessed a quadruple ban in the PDS scandal, Agyapa Royalties trickery, debt management, and sports.

The Almighty Power Distribution Service (PDS) scandal will go into history as representing Ghana as its highest corruption scandal. Remember the government of Ghana transferred the assets of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) worth over GH¢22 billion to PDS in March 2019. The arrangement was expected to cut commercial and distribution losses to the barest minimum while delivering improved power services to Ghanaians.

PDS which is a combination of Ghanaian investors and foreign technical partners was to invest some $580 million over a period of five years and continue its investment year after year throughout the 20-year period of the concession.

Beyond these investments, a larger portion of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) funding of $ 535.7 million is expected to flow into the power sector.

The Vice President and NPP flag bearer, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia spearheaded this deal. He violated the agreement and okayed the variation of a key condition precedent to a condition subsequent and also from a bank guarantee to an insurance guarantee.

The mistrust in the concession necessitated a forensic audit by the MCC into the issuance of insurance guarantees for the concession transaction. The audit revealed that there was no approval by appropriate signatories to the insurance guarantees issued by Al-Koot in Qatar, therefore, the transaction lacked the required authorisation and approval.

Again, Al-Koot has an underwriting policy and guidelines that require the approval of the Central Bank of Qatar, but no such approval was granted by the Central Bank. Clearly, Bawumia aided PDS in securing a fraudulent insurance guarantee to take over ECG

Not all, Investigations also revealed that the local shareholders of the PDS concession funded the $11.5 million of the $12.5 million payments it made to procure the insurance guarantee using funds taken from the operating accounts of ECG.

This led to the cancelation of the PDS agreement with Ghana losing a huge $1.67 billion in total all due to the making of Dr. Bawumia. The MCC remaining amount of $190 million, concessionaire (PDS) investment of $580 million, a regional compact amounting to $400 million, and a World Bank energy-related facility of $500 million were denied Ghana because of the unhealthy deal.

Another scandal Ghanaians will always remember in heaven is the Agyapa Royalties deal. A corruption risk assessment by the then Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu indicated that there was a family and friends collusion to milk our mineral resources.

The Special Prosecutor's report compelled an alliance of 25 civil society organisations to appeal to parliament to reject the deal because the report highlights grave irregularities, conflicts of interest, nepotism, and other breaches of law by Akufo-Addo, Dr. Bawumia, and their families in setting up the proposed company.

Under the plan, Ghana was set to sell 75.6 percent of the royalties generated from 16 large gold mines to Agyapa Royalties Limited. 49 percent of Agyapa Royalties shares are to be listed on the London Stock Exchange. The Special Prosecutor found that the sale of royalties to a company based in a known tax haven and a secrecy jurisdiction carries risks of money laundering and generating illicit financial flows.

The controversy surrounding the deal forced Martin Amidu to resign as Special Prosecutor and properly labeled President Nana Addo as the "Mother Serpent of corruption." The resistance of Ghanaians and the fear of losing the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections led to the abrogation of the deal.

Registering the Agyapa Royalties in tax heaven was of great concern to Ghanaians. Why will the government register a company in a tax haven to deny itself much-needed tax revenue? Your guess is as good as mine. Thanks to Ghanaians, Nana Addo, and his government were thrown out of the Landon Stock Exchange despite wasting a whopping $12 million.

If government debt were to be a disease, it should have been declared a pandemic. Nana Addo and his cronies were not only determined to mortgage our mineral resources for themselves but also profit from the loans we take. The former Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta who also doubles as the cousin of President Nana Addo benefits largely through his Data Bank from our borrowings. Manasseh Awuni in his book, "The President Ghana Never Got" revealed that Databank earned GH₵55,26782 million between 2018 and 2021 translating to about US$9.2 at the time from Ghana's bonds.

The desire to profit from borrowing led to over-borrowing with a debt to GDP at 92.4 percent by the end of 2022 compelling the rating agencies to downgrade Ghana. This resulted in the government being unable to service its debts because our taxes were underperforming and we were also banned from the capital markets. We had to resort to the IMF for bailout. A debt restructuring will eventually follow where both external and domestic debt holders are forced to accept severe haircuts on their principles and interests.

It must be on record that no president or family has ever misruled Ghana to the point where we become so reckless to deny people their legitimate toil. Never have we deliberately announced to the whole world that we cannot pay our debts but courtesy Nana Addo and Dr. Bawumia, we did.

Just this month, the unpleasant news of not having a befitting stadium to host the Black Stars' next two home qualifiers for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) was announced to us by the Confederation of African Football (CAF). This stadium ban infuriated many Ghanaians with many calling for the sacking of the Sports Minister, Mustapha Ussif.

Instead of focusing on working hard to reverse our historic ban, the Ministry chose to unjustifiably attack the NDC for neglecting the stadia. It says national stadia were death traps between 2009 and 2017 as the NDC government did not carry out any major renovation on the stadia forgetting that Ghana was never banned to host a home game by CAF under the Mills/Mahama.

The ministry is still struggling to explain to Ghanaians why it spent $245 million hosting the 13th African Games yet succeeded in getting our stadia declared unfit to host home games. The contradicting explanations by key participants in the spending is a worry to us. The invitation of the Special Prosecutor to carry out an investigation by the Forum for Accountable Governance must be praised.

The NPP government led by Nana Addo and Dr. Bawumia has become a major disgrace to Ghana instead of the blessing we thought we were going to be entitled to. A quadruple ban would not have been visited on us had we not been deceived to abandon a caring wife for one beautiful but unfaithful, insincere, and unholy.

We have never been denied grant monies as a result of any scandal like PDS or failed to register any business in any stock exchange like the Agyapa meant to enrich the president and his family. Our inability to go into the bond market as a result of our failure to pay our debts and Ghana being declared unfit to host football matches will go into history as the darkest portion of Ghana's image. We must not continue like this.