NPP: Does Mahama have shares in Rlg?

A member of the communication team of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Asante Yeboah, has alleged that the fact Roland Agambire’s Rlg has been given preference over any other Ghanaian entrepreneur suggests that President Mahama and the NDC could have shares in the company.

He said that the huge amount of money which government has invested in the SADA Azontaba Guinea Fowl Project should have been given to the farmers who are already in the same business in the Northern Region to expand their businesses rather than an individual company.

Speaking on Okay FM's Ghana Decides programme, he indicated that the government has invested Ghc15m in Azontaba Cottage Industry, of which Roland Agambire of Rlg is part, to form a subsidiary company called SADA Azontaba Guinea Fowl Production and Marketing Company.

In view of this the NPP communicator has stated that this act of government to invest in one company will not help in alleviating the poverty level in the Northern Region since many of the guinea fowl farmers are left out of this investment, adding that “are we investing in one single individual or are we investing in the whole Northern people”.

He stressed that the Ghc15m could have opened 10 companies for the people in the Northern Region and alternatively the government could have invested in 160,000 farmers who are already in the guinea fowl business.

He added: “I am tempted to believe that President Mahama and NDC have shares in rLG”. He said it is strange for the NDC government to invest $100 million dollars in rLG to distribute laptops in the country while there are other Ghanaian companies who can also assist in the supply of the laptops.

He stated that though Ghanaian companies must be encouraged, to him there is a serious effort and a calculated attempt to invest the nation’s money in one particular company and this raises a lot of suspicions.

He again stated that the government's involvement in the Hope City Project which will cost $10 billion dollars to put up, is a matter of worry in that Rlg have not been in existence for long enough to have the capacity to mobilise such a huge sum money as their balance sheet and tax returns cannot be enough to establish the project.

He reiterated that the SADA Azontaba Guinea Fowl Production and Marketing Company is a new one which should not be given Ghc150 million cedis as an investment; adding that the guinea fowl rearing is not expensive in the Northern Region and that the money the government has invested in the project is huge.

He said that clearly government does not understand the problem of the ordinary Ghanaian, as the government can give soft loans out of the Ghc15m to the farmers as they are being ask to repay and expand their business.

He said that the government has given the nation’s money to one person who wants to rear Guinea fowl, supply laptops and build Hope City, adding that these same opportunities are not given to other Ghanaian companies.