He said contrary to initial reports that the government was in talks to hand over management of the Ghana Airport to a private company, it is rather looking for investors to help make it more lucrative and create more jobs.
It would be recalled that in July 2020, workers of the Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL) embarked on wild demonstrations against the alleged plans by government to privatise the company.
Subsequent to this, the Aviation Minister in an address to the media announced the unstable financial standing of the company.
He said, “The Ghana Airport Company Limited is currently distressed due to heavy debts. The Ghana Airport Company is choked with this T3 debt which it has been paying for a long time. Because of that, they have not been able to make any extra revenues to undertake other projects.”
But speaking to the media Wednesday, August 26, 2020, during a tour of some projects in the airport enclave, Kofi Adda insisted that no such negotiations have been initiated by government in that regard.
While stressing on the need for funding of expansion projects in the sector he said “…the two agencies supported by government have been able to raise some money to do this, but not more than we can do. The revenue that are coming in are not going to be significant for us to bring in some billions of dollars that we need to continue to expand this sector.”
He continued, “this is where we need some interested partners to come and work with us but let me stress this doesn’t mean that any airport in Ghana or any asset of the aviation sector will be compromised in anyway, in terms of being privatised or being sold. That will never happen under this administration. Nobody in their right mind will think of selling an airport or privatising it…”
According to him, such reports were only concocted by some distasteful personalities to create confusion and dissatisfaction about the operations of the Ghana airport company and the Akufo-Addo-led government.
“…It’s only a few mischievous people who don’t mean well for the rest of our aviation workers, sector and misleading them…what we’re looking for is any partner who can bring in any investment that will help us expand and create jobs…,” he remarked.
On the other hand, however, the Minister inspected some projects which have been initiated by the government of Ghana under his supervision.
The projects include; the expansion works on the North Apron, construction of the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) headquarters and the new Aviation Navigation Services headquarters complex; which are all near completion levels of about 25%, 40% and 82%, respectively.
Kofi Adda, reiterated that these projects are in line with government’s plan to make Ghana an aviation hub within West Africa, and a destination of choice for travellers.
