NPP’s election petition cost Ghana $2b – Haruna Iddrisu

Ghana lost about US$2 billion in foreign investments due to the eight-month long Election Petition case hearing at the Supreme Court of Ghana, Minister of Trade and Industry has disclosed.

According Haruna Iddrisu, the hearing, which was necessitated by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP)'s dispute over the declaration of John Mahama as winner of the 2012 presidential elections, deprived the country of the needed foreign investments to develop.

Speaking on the Super Morning Show on Joy FM Tuesday, Mr. Iddrisu noted that the election petition case was more than a mere election dispute and that, it deprived the country of the needed political stability for investor confidence.

"It was not just a political issue that was being resolved, it was an economic issue. Between January and yesterday [Monday, Sept. 9, 2013], Ghana lost between US$1 billion to US$2 billion in respect of foreign investments as a result of the hesitation of investors to want to do business in Ghana," he stressed.

The loss, he said is "attributable to a pending action in the Supreme Court which was to decide on the legitimacy of an election outcome which ought to have been concluded at the end of December 2012."

The minister stated that, "investors need certainty particularly in the environment in which they are going to invest," and that for Africa, "political stability is key."

He observed that Ghana, as a country, needs foreign direct investments to finance major infrastructural projects.