What Peter Amewu said about the $2 million Sky Train Project deal

The Minority Caucus of Parliament is up in arms demanding that Attorney General Godfred Dame prosecutes government officials involved in the payment of $2 million in the Sky Train deal.

This was in reaction to an Auditor-General’s report which indicated that the government of Ghana has spent a whopping $2 million on the sky train which was originally costed at $3 billion.

The said amount, the Auditor-General said, was executed through the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund’s acquisition of 10 ordinary shares in the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), Ai Sky Train Consortium Holdings.

According to the 2021 audit report, despite the money spent, the feasibility studies for the project are still inconclusive.

The former Minister for Railways Development, Joe Ghartey, under whose tenure the Sky Train Project started, has stated that he never paid any money to AI Sky nor authorized the payment of US$2 million to fund the Accra Sky Train Project.

He added that “the GIIF is the statutory corporation that has the power to make such payments and so you can ask them”.

Even though the current Minister for Railways Development, John Peter Amewu, has not commented on the recent issues raised on the deal, his statement in 2021 indicates that there was no agreement in place.

Here is what the current Minister for Railways Peter Amawu said about the deal in 2021:

Speaking on City TV’s ‘Face to Face’ programme, Amewu said that the government would not go ahead with the sky train project as planned.

According to him, the government would not be able to fund the project owing to its intensity in terms of capital investment.

“The sky train that we are talking about is the one that is going to run on columns in the sky like the ones you see in Dubai but no agreement has been signed.

“It is not possible to be done now. I don’t see any sky train being done in the next 3-4 years. There is not going to be any Sky train in the country. It is not possible,” he stated.

The minister noted that the funding for the construction of some already commenced projects is becoming a problem for the government hence the need for the state to forgo the sky train project.

“Rail construction takes a lot of time and it is also capital intensive. A kilometre of a railway line is about four to five times the cost of building a concrete infrastructure in terms of building an asphaltic road.

“So, considering the fiscal space that we have in the country, facilities to absorb it is becoming problematic for the government and you know our current debt to GDP which is in excess of 70%,” he said.

About the Accra Sky Train Project

The Accra Sky Train Project envisaged a total track length of 194 kilometres across all routes and was projected to provide transportation to around 380,000 people each day.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo speaking at the signing of the project described it as “a happy day for Ghana and her good people,” adding that it is a “critical step towards the consummation of this project,” and a vivid testimony of the value of the African Investment Forum.

He further touted the project as an “important infrastructural need, and hopefully, the step that is being taken today, that is signing the concession agreement, is bringing the project to much nearer conclusion. That is what we are hoping for so that the people of Ghana benefit from the progress and the relief that a modern system of transport in our capital city is going to bring.”

At the time the agreement was signed, it was said that the project will be completed in some 9 months which would have been in August 2020.

BAI/OGB

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