Interview with Horst "IFC" Schneider

Kofi Owusu(of JoyFM): (I called 0012019343300, well that was the number the NDC gave to the press as the contract line for the IFC).

Answer: 'Hello' (Very young female voice)

Kofi Owusu: Good evening

Answer: Good evening

Kofi Owusu: Right, is this International Finance Consortium?

Answer: Who is this? (The same very young female voice)

Kofi Owusu: I am calling from Ghana and I wanted to know if this is International Finance Consortium.

Answer: Hold on a minute. (After a shot wait, a man comes on the line).

Answer: Hello

Kofi Owusu: Hello good evening Sir,

Answer: Yes Sir.

Kofi Owusu: Is this International Finance Consortium?

Answer: Yes Sir.

Kofi Owusu: So are you in any way entering into a loan agreement with Ghana?

Answer: It depends who is asking.

Kofi Owusu: (I introduced myself as a reporter who is working for a radio station in Ghana and he gives his name as Horst Schneider a member of the Board of IFC. I told him about the controversy raised by the main opposition party and he is ready to talk).

Schneider: The main opposition party doesn't know what they are looking at. Certainly, we will not be entering into a scam with the government and a presentation of documentation and meet with the authorities of Ghana too, if it was a scam.

We are a not for profit organization, we have some very high profile entrepreneurship and bankers in our Consortium that still feel there is the social responsibility and the social need to address the countries that need help the most and Ghana qualified as one of the countries. And it is not the only country the IFC is working with. We are working very closely with the United Nations and we are working, this is something probably you might not realize, the United Nations have endorsed our financial lending procedures world-wide and I can name you a dozen countries that we are working with and that have taken advantage of our favourable lending procedures and we have not had one complaint to substantiate the fact that you ask why such a low rate. We are not for profit mind you and using funds not only from banks but also from foundations and the foundations provide the funds to us interest free. So if you make a mix of funding between foundations and banks you can easily come with 2-2? per cent interest rate based upon the amount the percentage of funding out of foundation and based on the bank lending that we have to do to compensate for the rest of the money.

Kofi Owusu: You say you are not working for profit, now part of the agreement. You are going to sign with the government, states that; a one-time transaction fee of 3.5 per cent of the total loan amount will be deducted from the first tranche of the funds. And this works to about $35 million. Is that not profit for you?

Schneider: No, that is not profit for us and I tell you why it isn't because we have quite an enormous amount of expenses in order to fund loans of this type and we have legal fees that are based not so much on our tiny work but basically on the amount of the loans and the managerial task that the lawyers have put in them and you can check our law firm. We are using one of the world's most prominent laws firms, they don't come cheap.

Kofi Owusu: Why are you doing this for Ghana?

Schneider: Why are we doing this for Ghana? We are doing this for Ghana because if it wasn't for one of your most prominent citizens, we wouldn't do it for Ghana. We were approached by a gentleman in 2001 in the beginning of July, whether or not we could entertain loan for Ghana to the tune of about $1 billion Okay, and of course, we were looking at this at length and since we have a South African holding company that basically governs and determines who is being funded, and who is not being funded. We presented them the case of Ghana and also indicated that the gentleman who had suggested that we make money available to Ghana is...

Kofi Owusu: Who is this gentleman?

Schneider: The gentleman is Professor Ayensu. He single-handedly was able to convince our Consortium to make funding available to Ghana.

Kofi Owusu: Okay, Prof., Ayensu, do you know his first name?

Schneider: 'Ah' Professor Edward S. Ayensu.

Kofi Owusu: So Sir, what do you say to the opposition party which says that this loan agreement is a scam and you are just trying to dupe the government and people of Ghana?

Schneider: This is probably for the first time that you have a very transparent, very clear-cut proposition of a financial management system in co-operation with the United Nations supplied through Ghana where there is no possibility of any stealing, perhaps for corruption of any form and why and I must honestly tell you, I am impressed with the gentleman that I have been dealing with, from your Ministers of Finance to your bankers and that state bank governor. These are all high calibre, high profile people and they are of the highest ethical and moral fabric. I must tell you this, I have been in other issues where we turned down loans because we were asked to make under the table payments and in the Ghanaian case, I must tell you I expected something like this to happen but it hasn't.

Kofi Owusu: You expect this to happen, why?

Schneider: I expected this to happen, why because you are close to Nigeria, you are in a country that has a very bad track record in financial circles and again, if it was not for Prof. Ayensu's personal reputation at the World Bank, I don't think our Consortium would ever approve such a large loan to Ghana.

Kofi Owusu: Now that questions are being raised, what are you going to do, are you going to back out?

Schneider: Why should I back out?