Washington, DC — The following is a transcription of the press briefing by Ghana President John Agyekum Kufuor on August 4, 2006 at the Wyndham Hotel, Washington, DC. At the briefing, which was hosted by the Whitaker Group, the president was accompanied by Minister of Foreign Affairs Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo, Minister of Information and National Orientation Kwamena Bartels, and Minister of Public Sector Reform Kwesi Nduom. He was introduced by Ghana's ambassador to the United States, Fritz Poku.
Ambassador Poku: Honorable ministers, Honorable members of Parliament here present, Ladies and Gentlemen, and Members of the Press: It is a great honor for me to be given the task of introducing John Agyekum Kufuor, the president of the Republic of Ghana. To introduce a great man such as President Kufuor cannot be an easy task. He happens to be a president whose credentials and experiences are without parallel in Ghana. After graduating from the famous Oxford University in the United Kingdom in Economics and Law, he entered the public service as a town clerk in the city of Kumasi. During the period spanning over 30 years, he has served Ghana in diverse capacities. But he realized that he had a calling and a mission in politics.
Right from 1968, he held draft constitutions as he became an active member in various political parties. He twice served as a member of parliament in the second and third republics. He then became a deputy minister of foreign affairs. Having the courage of his conviction however, and convinced that he had a special destiny to fulfill, he kept on with the struggle until the year 2000, when he became the first opposition leader to lead a political party in Ghana, to unseat an incumbent government through the ballot box; and this was against all formidable odds.
Serving his second four year term in office, President Kufuor has been extraordinary as a shinning example of a new breed of African leadership. In Ghana, he has through prudent policies brought Ghana out of political and economic doldrums. Ghana has now become a strong functioning democracy with micro economic stability. The policies he has initiated have earned recognition from the World Bank, the IMF and the donor community.
This has resulted in debt forgiveness and a 100 percent debt cancellation from the multi-donor relief initiative. He has instituted social and economic programs that have had the effect of growing the economy and reducing poverty in Ghana. Ghana currently boasts a B+ credit rating from the prestigious Standard and Poor's. The signing of the Millennium Challenge Account Compact between Ghana and the Millennium Challenge Corporation yesterday is a further jewel in the crown of President Kufuor. With his personal involvement and commitment in the compact process, President Kufuor has led Ghana to score another first by becoming the MCC eligible country to receive the largest financial grant to date. He has declared his determination to lead Ghana to achieve middle-income status by the year 2015. There is no doubt, that judging by his past and current performance, President Kufuor will achieve this milestone. Without much further ado, I give you the President of Ghana.
President Kufuor: I’ve come here with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Information and National Orientation, Public Sector Reform and the Leader of the team that negotiated with the Millennium Challenge Corporation which resulted in our signing the compact yesterday. These gentlemen are here to support me in case I have problem answering any questions.
I am proud of you for what you have been doing both for Africa and for my country, for the return of peace to Ivory Coast. My first question is how far is the crisis in Ivory Coast affecting Ghana’s economy? We both know that both countries are related. My second question is that last week we heard very, very terrible news from Liberia. You were being welcomed by the first woman president in Africa and we heard that there was a fire in the mansion where you were getting ready for dinner. She said it might be a coup. Mr. President, you were there when the fire erupted. Will you tell to my counterparts here what really happened? Was it a coup or was it just an accident, because if the three presidents have died, I am touching the wood, what would be the consequences on the West African region?
President Kufuor: The Ivorian situation and its effect on Ghana’s economy -- It’s a question I would refuse not to talk so much about, the effect on Ghana’s economy as on the general political situation, not only in Ghana, but on West Africa. We do know that Cote d’Ivoire is so central to the socio-political situation in West Africa. It’s been the nerve center of the francophone world in West Africa for as far back as anybody can remember. And so when Cote d’Ivoire is in trouble, it means there’s ripple effects on the entire neighborhood of Cote d’Ivoire. Ghana happens to be a direct neighbor sharing a common border with Cote d’Ivoire, and in fact sharing tribes too. So the problem with Cote d’Ivoire, has somehow spilled over into Ghana and made the mood a bit uncertain on us.
We’ve all been working to restore peace and normalcy back to Cote d’Ivoire. This year, with the intervention of the Security Council, following up on what France and nations of Africa tried to do through the Makossi Accord, and also the three conferences in Accra, and the Pretoria Accord, date has been fixed for elections in Cote d’Ivoire, October being the sort of deadline, for the people of Cote d’Ivoire to choose their political leaders under the constitution to regain normalcy. We’re all hoping that this date can be met.
If you still persist on talking about the economy, there some cynics who would say because of the troubles in Cote d’Ivoire, the Sahelian countries have diverted their access to the sea through Ghana, and so Ghana might be making some good gains economically. I believe whatever gains they’re making this way are marginal. The wish of Ghana is that Cote d’Ivoire resumes her rightful place within Ecowas and in our neighborhood so that all of us can benefit from the healthy situation that will resume there.
With regards to Monrovia, yes, I was there. I had been invited to support our first lady president in Africa, to commission the street lights in her capital city. As you know for the past 15 years or so, the city had been blacked out through the civil war. When the president was elected, she promised the people that within 150 days, she would restore electricity to the city. She then appealed to Ghana to send engineers and material to her to fulfill this promise to the people, this Ghana was able to do. And so when the first lights were being put on, she invited me to go, to do the honors with her which I gladly accepted. That day also happened to have been the 159th anniversary celebration, so there were two happy occasions happening that day. When we got there, we went through the motions, we put the lights on, then went to the Great Hall to celebrate the 159th anniversary, after which she invited the presidents who were there to go with her to the executive mansion for the luncheon she was giving to mark the occasion. There had been, I think, other invitees, perhaps 100 or more. So we all trooped to the mansion. Few minutes after our arrival there, the security rushed on us to say there was smoke on the fourth floor of this big edifice.
Security ushered us out. There was no panic. In reality, I didn’t get a feel of a coup d’etat. There was an incident. We shouldn’t forget that the building had been out of use for perhaps a decade. It’s so close to the sea. There was a lot of rust that you can see on the building. So perhaps, putting on lights within such a building that is not restored could spark off such an incident. But on the other hand, we all know the political background of the current situation in Liberia. One shouldn’t rule out the possibility of some saboteur trying to cause a stir. But what happened eventually is that the peacekeeping forces of the Security Council, the blue beret people were able to douse the fire, so the fire was contained on the fourth floor and put out. This is what I know of it. Of course, the president activated her security system to try to find out the real cause of the fire. I’ve spoke with her since then, she was quite calm and I’m sure she’s awaiting the report of the security agencies. But coup d’etat, I didn’t see it. I didn’t think any of us really was in danger. The security was so fast and ushered us out of the building, calmly.
I have two questions. One is about the Millennium Challenge Account. $500 million is a lot of money. Mr. President, could you tell us briefly how do you hope to spend this money? And how do you respond to criticism we get from people in Ghana that, there was a report we carried some time ago that this money, the allocation of it was being done based on political affiliation, that maybe areas that were not supportive of you were being side-stepped. So in other words, the money is being given out based on political support for you, please clarify that. Two, I mean you have been described here that Ghana has emerged as a jewel of democracy in Africa under your reign. Please explain in 2008, you will be leaving, please explain whether do you feel that under your reign democracy has been solidified in Ghana?
The Millennium Challenge account -- how the money is being spent, how the money is being spent or is going to be spent is already determined. In fact I should say investment, not just spending; how the money is to be invested is already determined. And it is determined on the basis of the carefully worked out feasibility that was understood by the transaction chief led by my minister for public sector reform, a team made up of highly competent and qualified people, most of whom are not political at all. And there are -- some are not even public servants. They were invited purely on their professional competence and expertise to come and help put together the compact for the agreement with the Millennium Challenge Corporation of the United States. It’s on this basis disbursement and investment will be done. So any talk of my coming with sack to carry $547 million, cash, to go and spend, I think should be dispelled.
Second, there hasn’t been any political bias at all in the selection of places to directly benefit. Because as I said, it’s an assistance given for us to invest for quick yields which will then be revolved to spread out to benefit the country as a whole, and because of this, the technocrats -- and here I would say, it wasn’t exclusively Ghanaian technocrats, they worked in cooperation with the team from the Millennium Challenge Corporation to identify the areas of Ghana where when the investment is done, the yields we expect, the quick yields we expect will be achieved.
This is how some areas in the northern part of the country which incidentally didn’t vote for me or my party, five districts in the north, I don’t think we won even a single seat in those parts, then some areas in the center of the country, again there, I would say there was a balance, about two or three areas voted for my party, but the others didn’t vote for us, then areas down south, again balance; some of our toughest opposition areas, where my party hasn’t ever won, they were picked to benefit from this initial investment. So this is how the selection was done and there was no political bias at all. Our exclusive concern is the quick yielding of the investment to the benefit of the economy Ghana as a whole.
Then what I perceive as -- the people say -- legacy I will be leaving in terms of democracy for Ghana when I retire in the year 2008: I believe my government has recorded such a marked success in firming up democracy and democratic practice and good governance in Ghana that even if I retired tomorrow, the people of Ghana will carry on with their democratic governance. The constitution we’re practicing, as I’m sure you know, was inaugurated in the year 1992. That time we were not in power, so perhaps some of the credit would go to the then-government that ushered the constitution, because the constitution is a very democratic one. It provides for separation of powers to some extent. I say to some extent because it’s really a hybrid of separation of powers the constitution provided for, and then the rule of law, and the respect for human rights, and freedom of expression, and then freedom of religion, recognition of civil societies; again respect for gender balance, that sort of thing, everything, again property rights; the constitution provided for all these rights, which you find in a democracy. The difference that is happening and happening very well, thoroughly during my tenure is the extent of respect for these constitutional rights. I believe this is what most of Ghana and the rest of the world are acknowledging. I believe Ghana has come so far with the practice of these rights that even after me, the people of Ghana insist that governance continues in this framework. By 2008 when I go out, I will go out as a happy as a democrat who helped to deepen democracy.
You’ve outlined quite an ambitious economic agenda as Ambassador Poku reiterated in his introduction. Could you tell us how the Millennium Challenge Account monies, the investment, fits into that agenda and more generally, how you’re trying to propel Ghana to these new levels that you’ve talked about? And accomplish such goals as meeting the Millennium Development Goals in Ghana?
For the past, I would say, 15 or 16 years, successive governments have enunciated a vision for Ghana. Initially, the vision was targeted at the year 2020 when Ghana will be a middle-income nation that is with a per capita of over $2,000. Down the line, my party or my government came on the scene and we decided that we could achieve this status within 15 years or a decade. So we programmed ourselves, and chose our priorities to work toward realizing the vision by the year 2015. And we’ve come, I believe, quite close to the threshold where we could realize this vision. When we assumed office 2001, the GDP growth rate was 3.7 percent, the following year it moved to 4.2; the next year 4.8; the fourth year, we were over 5 percentage points with 5.2, and then into this year we’re talking of 6 percent, perhaps over. Now, when you visit Ghana, and you know Ghana very well, you’ll see the spate of construction all over the place. Accra, for instance is sprawling virtually beyond control.
We’re proud that the sprawl reflects increase in work, but we’re concerned because it’s proving difficult to manage, to plan, but this is a fact. We have been lucky that the world cocoa price has gone up and been stable around a $1500 a ton. The macroeconomic management has been excellent for the past four or five years in spite of the crude oil market’s turbulence. Somehow, the economy has held, and inflation is falling. Interest rates in the banks are falling. When we assumed office, to borrow from any bank in Ghana, you should be prepared to pay, is it over 50 percent, 52 percent interest. You couldn’t do any business with that. As we speak it’s dropped to around 20 and it’s going down. In fact, we suspect the banks are holding back. They could go as low as 15 even now. But they are holding back, pretending they just want to be sure that the trend is very secure. The currency, as I said, has held so firmly against the hard currencies of the world – dollar, sterling, euro over the past three years. 2000 and 2001, the cedi depreciated against the dollar over, I would say 100 percent. The economic technocrats would say 50 percent or something, but everybody knew that the cedi was most unstable, was falling freely. So these are the indicators.
And so with this vision of attaining the middle income, first year, my government adopted a five point priority policy. First, to tackle infrastructural development vigorously, because we believed without well laid infrastructure, investment would not flow in. When we’re talking infrastructure we’re talking the road system, the ports, energy, ICT and things like that -- cause time we came in, the intercity roads were all broken down, ICT wasn’t quite what it should be; and energy we could have long outages all over the country. And petroleum products, everywhere in Ghana people queued, sometimes for days to get even a gallon of petrol to buy. So we needed to tackle all these. For the past three or four years, we don’t see any queue, petrol has been flowing, energy has been really stable. And on all fronts, business people are proving happy.
Then the other priority was provision of social services, education. We’ve built, over the past three years over 4,000 primary schools, all equipped with furniture. When we assumed office, children were sitting on the floor; school furniture was a luxury to have. A lot of buildings too were in ruins, window blown out, broken-down doors, roofs torn off, now you don’t see it. Hospitals, even the premier hospital of Ghana, Kolebo, had been boarded up in many of the departments. The medical department was totally boarded up; the maternity, the children’s ward was also boarded up. Mothers were sleeping with their babies on the floor. We’ve worked out all these. And the other priority was the modernization of agriculture and commercializing it. As you know, we’re largely a rural people, with over 60 percent of our people as farmers. But that’s where the incidence of poverty really reigned supreme. So with all these priorities and also good governance, and support for private sector, because we thought the private sector should be made, or supported to become the main engine of economic growth. With all these put together, government worked. The debt burden at the time we assumed office weighed the entire system down so, that in the first year, 2001, we found government needed to find as much as $250 million just to service the external debt when we didn’t have any money at the exchequer. And this was how we took the HIPC Initiative.
It wasn’t a popular policy to decide on. A lot of critics thought we were demeaning our nation, admitting to the world that we were highly indebted and poor. But we, government, studied the situation closely, and because we wanted to move towards the vision of middle-income status, we thought that was the time to swallow the bitter pill. And we declared for HIPC, truly when we took that step, within one year of our assuming office, the creditors rallied to our support. And that was when the debt forgiveness started. For instance, the $250 million that we needed to transfer to service the external debt waswritten off by the creditors led by Great Britain. So that first year, we saved ourselves the unhappy burden of taking $250 million out.
The regime of discipline imposed by the HIPC initiative we followed very strictly, and within two and half years, we had rehabilitated the macro economy to the degree where the IMF declared Ghana had completed the HIPC initiative; we had reached the completion point. And on that basis, the IMF and the bilateral creditors or the Paris Club decided to cancel for Ghana, immediately, out rightly, $2 billion of our debts, the debts we owed, and a further $2 billion to be forgiven over a period of 20 years, in installments of $100 million every year. This was a landmark achievement. Two years of HIPC, this was what we got. We followed it up, and then the G8 had started engaging themselves on considering the 100 percent debt forgiveness.
I was invited to the Sea Island conference, was it two or three years ago, G8 in the United States here, and the following year I was invited to the Gleneagles in Scotland, where the G8 decided on the 100 percent forgiveness, and the first countries picked to benefit included Ghana. On this forgiveness, Ghana again was saved almost $4 billion to the multilateral creditor community. And with all these write-offs and the increasing good performance in the economic and social funds in Ghana, we find that but for the crude oil market unpredictability now, the price hikes, Ghana perhaps will be moving to 8 percent growth right now. So this is the background. It’s a very ambitious program we’ve been pursuing, but we’ve pursued this ambition with the requisite disciplines, and I should express appreciation for the support the people of Ghana have given government so far. Because the situation sometimes could have led to some unsettling conduct, but the people have at every stage rallied with government, sometimes grumbling, but nevertheless sticking with government and appreciating that we’ve needed to swallow the bitter pill to move out of the difficulties. And so this is how we’ve worked, and I believe we’ve got some way to go yet, but we now we see the light at the end of the tunnel, especially with what we signed yesterday. I’m sure the people will stay with government and we’ll get to middle income of at least $1,000 per capita within the next few years. So this is my reaction to your question.
[Here the moderator took several questions in succession]
Does the Millennium Challenge agreement that you signed yesterday become the focus of your development agenda in Ghana? Also, something you said earlier about your 50th anniversary of independence - We know that your first president, Kwame Nkrumah worked tirelessly for African unity. Recently at a summit in Abuja, Presidents Abdoulaye Wade and President Olusegun Obasanjo both talked about an accelerated agenda for African unity. I’d be interested in hearing your position on Africa unity.
What do you think about elections in DRC considering that Ghana has been held up as an example of democracy?
Since Ghana is the shinning star, doesn’t the 50th anniversary of democracy particularly as it has thrived and grown under your administration and your terms in office mean more, not just to Ghana, but to the way the world looks towards your country for guidance whether it’s Liberia or the Ivory Coast? How do you tie that to next year’s anniversary?
Could you describe the role of religious organizations and leaders in the economic and humanitarian efforts with your government? And will they be involved in the investment mechanism with the compact?
MCA: whether it’s the focus of our development? MCA is more a coincidence with our development policy. From 2001, before MCA came into being, our country was pursuing a development policy titled: Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy. And the terms of this policy happened to be same as the terms of the Millennium Challenge Account: good governance, support for private sector, investment in human resources. Our policy right from 2001 was enhanced social services promotion. When we talk social services promotion, we’re talking of enhancing educational policy, in which we we’re pursuing free and compulsory basic education for all the children of Ghana, from age 4 to age 15.
MCA came three years ago and is insisting on human resource and/or investing in people, our government was doing it as a priority. Private sector development was original from 2001, part of our policy because we accept that the private sector has a role to play in moving our economy into acceleration, so I wouldn’t say MCA is the focus of our development policy, I would say MCA in way has come to coincide with what we were trying to do. What MCA is doing is it's bringing fresh lump sum of money that has been very scarce to us. The plans have been there, beautiful, and we’ve been cutting corners to try to fulfill these plans. But what MCA has done with the $547 million infusion, it will to empower us, enable us give investment to agriculture which is very crucial so as to save the resources that we would have laid out from our budget to focus on other things. We have other priorities, like with education. When you’re talking free and compulsory universal basic education, when you want to refurbish tertiary education, when you are setting up model secondary schools in all the districts of Ghana, when you want to refurbish the 38 teacher training institutions of Ghana, you need a lot of money. Before MCA, very limited resources would have been shared, spread thinly among all these priorities. We will use MCA for this and so that the rest we will use other money to pursue the other priorities. MCA is reinforcing our focus. It is not the focus of our development policy.
The 50th anniversary and what it means: You said Nkrumah worked for Africa, and truly Nkrumah worked was exemplary as a pan-Africanist. We are all proud of it. To some extent, even people criticized that he used Ghana as the pad, the jumping pad to move on to Africa, and in the process almost forgot about Ghana. So he did well for Africa. We are learning from hindsight of history. We are also serving Africa. Within my four, five year term in office so far, any trouble within the neighborhood, I’ve been involved to try to help resolve -- Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, we’ve been involved. Perhaps we haven’t enjoyed the high profile that my predecessor enjoyed. But my predecessor was a pioneer. At that time he was the only pebble on the beach so the whole world saw him. Now I have President Obasanjo, President Wade and many other [elected leaders].
[break in the recording]
My minister here, who led the negotiation team, with support of American advocates, worked with Congress generally, but I believe more so with the Black Caucus, and fortunately, our compact got the approval of Congress. And this is how I come here to sign. And there was no serious question I’m being advised, from any congressman. So that’s how the compact got passed.
ID cards and passports with biometric features – we believe Ghana has come to a point where it must use citizens' ID to identify all the people in the country. It makes for easy governance these days. It facilitates the exercise of rights of people. So government has been working for the past two years, to try to get the ID cards issued. The cost has been prohibitive. And so the tender committee that worked on it has identified the producer and naturally, we had to negotiate for funding. I’m happy to say the producer is a French company and the French government has come forward with some support for the cards to issue. I believe the processes are being worked for the issue to begin. That’s for the IDs. The biometric passport, that’s another issue I believe the security agencies and the authorities who manage passports are working on, and hopefully within the course of the year or so, we’ll work on top or over this problem. But for the time being, we haven’t got the biometric passport, not yet.
Africa and G8 this year – truly, the Middle East dominated the G8 meeting. I don’t think it was anybody’s deliberate plan. It just happened, again the co-incidence of the problems of Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, and so forth and so on, erupting engaged the attention of the G8 and that really put every other issue to the winds. The fact is that the current chairman of the African Union was invited, and he attended, the conference in St. Petersburg. President Sassou Nguesso was there, and the South African president too was there. So between the two of them, I’m sure Africa’s cause was pursued even though we didn’t get the publicity that I’m sure we deserved. So it wasn’t as if Africa was ignored, it wasn’t. I understand even a statement by the G8 was issued on Africa. It’s just that we’re not hot news right now. The hot news is Lebanon and around.
Then BBC asked the question about the use from MCA, how quick, how to measure it and whether we will declare to the international community. How quick will be determined by the management that we put in place to administer the compact. We have set up a governing authority chaired by the minister who has the duty for the compacts. And we believe this authority will engage itself full time using the feasibilities that we used to convince MCC that we knew what we were engaging on with requisite timetables. And so this is how fast the divestments began for investments. And the yields for the farms, the areas of the farms were deliberately selected. Largely they are in the Volta basin, if you know Ghana, by the Volta River. So, irrigation and modern agricultural practices like improved seedlings, extension services, application of necessary pesticides and things like that will all be done.
With the infrastructure also laid (feeder roads, I talked about them), and post-harvest handling mechanisms like food storages, pack houses, all these things. Marketing strategies we have prepared to use them and when the proceeds come, the proceeds will not go to the governments, this will get to the farmers who are going to be given the loans. Of course, they will pay the loans back to the rural banks that will manage the investments. And it is when they pay back their loans that the banks will then lend to other farmers in the queue who will benefit. Government is just a facilitator, so it wouldn’t be the business of the government to go tell the world that we got this from MCA and this is the return we got and we show it. That is not how it is going to be. It is going to be regular serious business with the necessary confidentialities exercised through the banks, but I assure you that Ghana is fully determined that this project will work because we are going to use it as a catalyst to change and transform the agricultural sector of our country.
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You also asked about debt forgiveness: whether MCA will not create further debt. The MCA is a total grant; it is not a debt. It is not a loan to Ghana. It’s money America has given to Ghana in acknowledgment of good governance and sound economic management for Ghana to help herself. So, it is not a matter of creating debt at all. Of course, if we go in for bad management, we may lose this money. But even then, that will not create any debt for us like, when you go to borrow and then spend that money, so the debt issue doesn’t come in. And then the diaspora investment potential: truly there is a lot of money out here say with African Americans who might want to invest in Ghana and we are inviting them to come and do so. Also with Ghanaians living outside – already they are sending back lots and lots of money. 2001 when we came in, the remittances from them totaled $400 million. At first I thought it was $300 million.
Last year, just in the space of four to five years, remittances topped $4.8 billion you can imagine. The first quarter of this year alone, January to March, the remittances exceeded $2 billion. So, if things continue as they are to the end of the year, we are expecting not less than $8 billion. We haven’t heard of this ever before. So the diasporas are looking towards Ghana and government is encouraging them to come and invest and also to feel like citizens of Ghana. And government is doing everything to involve the diaspora Africans to come and join with us in the celebration of the 50th anniversary. We have set up a project called ‘Joseph Project’. You know the bible story of Joseph who was sold by his own brothers into slavery. But as destiny would have it, Joseph became the Prince of Egypt and when famine struck his original homeland, the brothers came to Egypt looking for help and it was Joseph who saved their nation. I don’t need to explain anymore, just telling you how Ghana looks on the diaspora Africa.
And the Middle East question, you haven’t heard from Ghana government any serious far-reaching statements. Middle East is such a complicated and intractable situation that I believe we will all do well not to talk too much about the situation of which we are not too well informed. This is why government is being cautious. It is not for lack of consent. We are all concerned because, look at the crude oil market and how it is affecting our economy. We really want a quick solution, but it is perhaps one of the most long lasting problems the world has been faced with. And so we are very cautious not to sort of tread even where angels might fear to tread. That’s all. But Ghana, in the host of the United Nations is always voting rightly with people who go in for peace and a fair resolution all round. That is Ghana’s role. Even if we are not talking our votes contribute to our pursuit of fair peace in the Middle East.
Then you are talking about Valco, whether it was a wrong buy on the part of government and whether Valco is endangering the power situation of Ghana. Anybody who talks like this hasn’t take time to study the projects. Valco, (or Volta Aluminum Company in full), was set up by Kaiser Aluminum of the United States way back. As you know President Kennedy supported President Kwame Nkrumah to build the Akosombo Dam with an energy capacity of almost 1000 megawatts with the whole idea that Kaiser would use the energy, buy the energy to smelter aluminum in Ghana. Nkrumah had a vision of creating an integrated aluminum industry in Ghana because Ghana has huge deposits of oxides. I believe conservatively we have a billion tons of oxides in Ghana. Nkrumah wanted to industrialize Ghana as quickly as possible and he wanted to use aluminum. So he wanted to build this dam and approached President Kennedy who encouraged Kaiser to go to Ghana to build a smelter and use the energy. This was early 1960s.
Kaiser built a smelter but kept importing aluminum from the West Indies, Jamaica and never mined our oxides in Ghana to refine or do the smelting at the refinery or at the smelter. This has been the case till now. Then like three years or so back management of Kaiser came to Ghana to declare that Kaiser had fallen on difficult times, was going bankrupt and wanted to sell off the smelter. They openly admitted that they had benefited from Ghana for over 30 years, buying our energy at one cent or so a unit when the ordinary consumer in Ghana was paying over four cents. Kaiser the industrial giant was paying, that is all the benefits it had gotten from Ghana.
If Ghana wanted it would sell to Ghana at a more or less giveaway price rather than sell it off on the market. They would have …easily. Kaiser had gone out but they wanted to favor us. The plant, three years ago, was estimated conservatively at over $200 million and was given to us for only $18 million. The issue was mine to take and I thought it would be most irresponsible of me if we allowed this strategic plant to go from us. This is why we decided to take it. And when we took it, we thought we had a bargaining chip in hand trying to attract partners and truly since we took over Kaiser we’ve been sort of courted internationally. There are our friends from Japan, from United States here, from Canada. Everybody wants to come in with us and this time around we are talking about mining of oxides, refining, …Ghana, and then feeding the smelter, and that was Kwame Nkrumah’s dream, which we are pursuing.
In the short-term naturally, and since the plant is ours, we need to accommodate the functioning of Kaiser even as we considered the offers we are getting. But this is what those people who are criticizing are searching. They are being so shortsighted. They don’t see the bigger gains because if we can pull through with the offers we are getting. And we are getting very serious offers. Studies have been done, all the exploratory work has been done to the extent that we have signed MoUs with two of the world’s leading companies to mine and build refineries at the same time, two separate ones, each attracting an initial investment of not less than $1.5 billion dollars. AQUA is one, and ACAN of Canada is the other and they are all talking within a time span of two years or so to … and build their plants of not less than $1.5 billion each separately. Meaning when they take off, there will come by an investment of $3 billion. We’ve never had anything like that. So this is what is driving government and we hear the criticisms but we believe our decision is right.
