New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential hopeful Kennedy Agyapong has stated that he was the person who helped Ghana clinch the Sinohydro deal which has helped with the construction of roads in the country.
According to him, the government delegation sent to China to get a deal for the construction of roads failed and the only reason the Chinese government gave the $2 billion under the Sinohydro was because of the record of the entity which he used to represent in Ghana.
“I’m just an MP but I fought for the government to get $3 billion. Again, the same Sinohydro, which is being used to construct roads in the country, was partly because of my contribution.
“Myself and Mr Oppong were the representatives of Sinohydro for the construction of the Bui dam. They are the ones who gave us the US$2 billion dollars that is being used for the construction of roads. Shame anybody who comes to claim credit for the roads being constructed.
“The government delegation which was sent to China chose China Railway but the China Railway did not get the money for them and they come back. The reason why they gave the money to Ghana is that Sinohydro has a track record in Ghana which is the Bui Dam. This is why we were able to get $2 billion under the Akufo-Addo government,” he said in Twi as he was speaking to NPP members in the Banda Constituency in the Bono Region.
He added that as a “simple legislator”, he has been able to help the government get a lot of resources but he never brags about it.
Agyapong, the Member of Parliament Assin Central, challenged the candidate in the NPP flagbearership race claiming applause for the Sinohydro deal to a debate.
“Some people are going round dragging that the actions of a certain candidate brought the Tamale interchange, Takoradi interchange. I want to challenge them to a debate for them to come and tell me that they are the ones who helped the country get these monies,” he added.
The multi-billion-dollar Ghana deal with China’s Sinohydro has been praised internationally as a model that the rest of Africa should adapt, to lessen the financial woes of their economies.
It is considered a game-changing deal, sealed by the President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in 2018 with the Chinese State-owned Sinohydro Company. This a multi-billion-dollar barter deal of refined Ghanaian bauxite, a mineral essential to aluminium production, in place of Chinese construction of infrastructure in the country.
The deal has been strikingly elaborated as a complete departure from direct foreign currency loans from China, in exchange for infrastructure, which many African Governments easily adopt to fund their development projects at the expense of sound fiscal management of their economies.
Unlike the US$2 billion Ghana-Sinohydro arrangement which is not a direct foreign currency loan, but a direct barter with refined bauxite exchanged for its equivalent of infrastructure - with no cash exchanging hands.
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