Ghana Airway Liquidation

The Enquirer is in possession of documents that indicate the Ghana Airways Limited, before its demise under the watch of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government in 2004, had landed properties worth over¢106 Billion ($7,313,380). The then government liquidated Ghana Airways because they refused to raise $2million requested by the then management of Ghana Airways to turn around the national carrier.

The Kufuor government decided to liquidate the airline with a promise to establish a completely new and modern airline which was profitable. By the time they left office, the new airline they established was indebted to the tune of $55 million, with no assets to show for it, unlike Ghana Airways.

Surprisingly, the properties, which were both within Ghana and outside, were disposed off under such bizarre circumstances that it would be very difficult to trace some of the buyers today.

At the Airport Residential Area in Accra alone, the national airliner was in possession of plots that were valued at the time of the liquidation of the airline at $3,194,500.

The plots, according to the documents, include plots G2, G4, G6, H1, H3 and H5, which were valued at $1,684,500.

Within that same Airport Residential Area, Ghana Airways Limited possessed plot numbers G8, G10, H7, H9 and J2, which were also valued at $1,270,000 but were sold off.

In addition to that, the airliner had a club house at Cantonments in Accra, plot 26D, which was valued at $400,000 but was believed to have been sold at a ridiculous price far less than its value.

The houses at the Airport Residential Area and the Club House at Cantonments were valued to have generated rent of GH¢45,195,200 (¢451,952,000,000) Apart from that, the Ghana Airways Training School located at the Switchback Road in Accra, which was also valued at $779,250, was also sold under strange circumstances, in addition to four houses at Roman Ridge in Accra. The Roman Ridge houses were Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 and were sold for a total amount of $322,830.00 to some unknown persons.

Again, Ghana Airways Limited had four houses at Sakumono, near Tema, which were valued at $31,800.00. The houses were numbered E22, C22, C24 and C26. There was also another two-bedroom house at Dansoman, also in Accra, which was valued at $6,300.00 together with a bed-sitter valued at $2,800.00. The company also had properties at Kisseiman, also in Accra, which included bungalows, flats and uncompleted buildings and bare land valued at $1,355,000.00, while it had another property valued at $23,000.00 at La-Ko (Labone) in Accra.

In Takoradi and Kumasi, in the Western Region and the Ashanti Region respectively, the national airliner had two houses that were valued at $17,800.00and $16,000.00 respectively.

Ghana Airways Limited also had properties at Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region and Tamale in the Northern Region as well, which were disposed of before the demise of the national carrier.

In Sunyani, it had two houses at the State Housing Area and SSNIT area, which were valued at $14,000.00 and $5,400.00 respectively.

As if the disposal of the properties in Ghana was not enough, those outside also suffered the same fate, as buildings in Lond on in the United Kingdom and Freetown in Sierra Leon were also sold out.

In London, three buildings which were together valued at $973,600.00 situated at 72E London, 26St Christopher Close and 214 Wheatlands were all disposed of. In Freetown, two buildings valued at $248,400 located at 22 Charlotte Street and 48 Lower Pipeline were also disposed of.

Interestingly, most of the properties were in good shape before they were disposed of.

All that was needed to put some of them in top shape was simple renovation, but in a typical game of ‘giving a dog a bad name just to hang it’, the properties were sold off.