Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, has criticised plans to allow a strategic investor to acquire up to a 70% stake in the Volta Aluminium Company Limited (VALCO), describing the proposal as unnecessary and unreasonable.

According to him, Ghana has enough natural resources to raise the funding needed to modernise VALCO without giving away majority ownership of the company.

Government seeks private capital to modernise VALCO - GIADEC

Speaking on Metro TV on July 29, 2026, Pratt argued that it was difficult to understand why the country was struggling to raise about $600 million to revive VALCO while sitting on bauxite deposits valued at about $48 billion.

"Now, the other thing which for me is most important is that this country is sitting on the raw material, bauxite, untouched, valued at 48 billion dollars. Now, isn't it very, very strange that we are sitting on 48 billion dollars and we are complaining that we don't have six hundred million dollars? We are sitting on 48 billion dollars, it's in your soil, and you are complaining that we need 600 million dollars, we can't find it'. What's wrong with you?" he said.

He questioned the competence of public officials handling the country's resources and said there was no justification for giving away such a large stake in VALCO to secure funding.

"I mean, if you are this incompetent, if you are this useless, why are you anywhere near government assets? Why are we giving our powers to you to manage our affairs? We are sitting on 48 billion dollars, and you are complaining about six hundred million. Incredible," he added.

Pratt further stated that the aluminium industry has the potential to drive Ghana's industrialisation and should not be treated as an asset to be handed over to private investors.

"We are talking about an industry which potentially can become the backbone of our industrialization project and so on, and we are throwing our arms in despair and saying that, 'oh, you need an individual, a company is an individual I suppose, you know, to come and give us six hundred million dollars and take seventy percent of the company.' Are you crazy? Unbelievable," he stated.

He also dismissed suggestions that the debate was based on ideology, insisting that it was simply a matter of making sound economic decisions.

"There is no ideological debate; it is about common sense. Simple common sense," Pratt said.

The veteran journalist argued that the government could secure the required funding through a commercial loan instead of selling the majority shares in the company.

"You can actually, on the basis of the viability of the enterprise, go to a bank, make a case, and get $600 million, which would enable you to retrofit, buy equipment, and so on, and you pay it as a loan. The Bank of Financial Institutions doesn't have to have shares in VALCO to make you generate $600 million. It is viable," he explained.

"Why should you have to sell 70% of VALCO to be able to generate $600 million? Peanuts! Compared to what we are sitting on. It doesn't make any sense at all. Sometimes I am lost. Sometimes I wonder how public officials think. Well, sometimes I actually wonder whether they do any thinking at all," he concluded.

Pratt's comments come after the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Integrated Aluminium Development Corporation (GIADEC), Reindorf Twumasi Ankrah, disclosed that the government is seeking a strategic investor to inject fresh capital into VALCO as part of plans to modernise and expand the state-owned aluminium producer.

Speaking on TV3's New Day on July 29, 2026, Ankrah said proposals received from interested investors requested up to a 70% stake, but stressed that no final decision had been taken.

VALCO needs strategic investor to survive - GIADEC confirms

He explained that negotiations are yet to begin and that government, through GIADEC and a Ghanaian individual or entity, will retain at least a 30% interest in line with the GIADEC Act.

According to Ankrah, the proposed investment is expected to modernise the smelter and increase VALCO's production capacity from 200,000 tonnes to 300,000 tonnes by adding a new 100,000-tonne production line.

Watch the video below:

Are You Crazy? $600m for 70% shares in a $ 45Bn-worth VALCO? - Kwesi Pratt fumes over VALCO conundrum#GoodMorningGhana #MetroTV pic.twitter.com/06HeKOQyO9

— Metro TV Ghana (@metrotvgh) July 29, 2026