$19bn loan: Ghana is in a 'joint venture business' with China - Gideon Boako

Technical Advisor to the vice president, Dr. Gideon Boako has noted that the brouhaha surrounding a $19 billion fund from the Chinese government is “unfortunate”.

Earlier communiqué from government indicated that Ghana is seeking to leverage its natural resources, specifically bauxite, through its recent partnership with the Chinese government that saw the latter pledge to commit over 15 billion dollars to Ghana’s economy.

But the minority in parliament also argued that the money is a loan from the Chinese government which would plunge the country into a Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) status.

The Minority Spokesperson on Finance, Mr Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, maintained that the loan facility, which would raise the country's debt by 50 per cent, would raise the country's debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 72 per cent to about 130 per cent.

However, Dr. Gideon Boako who was among government delegation to China explained that “Ghana and China are in a joint venture. We insisted on that during a meeting with the Chinese government so the money is not loan as purported”

“The Chinese government agreed to our proposal and signed an agreement on that. we are not going to pay them anything but profits from the joint venture business will be shared among the two great countries,” he added

Speaking on NEAT FM’s morning show ‘Ghana Montie’ the vice president’s advisor said – “We made it clear to the Chinese government that, whiles they are providing the money for the joint venture business we will use the money to work on Ghana’s bauxite sector for the international market which they agreed.”