Kufuor virtually sold Ghana’s oil find – Kofi Adams

The National Organizer of the ruling National Democratic Congress(NDC) has blamed the largest opposition New Patriotic Party(NPP) for selling off what he described as vital state assets in the country during the NPP regime.

“We had a national Airline-Ghana Airways and they sold it at the time as well as a majority shares of Ghana Telecom to Vodafone,” Mr Kofi Adams said.

Kofi Adams says apart from the sale of Ghana Telecom, the erstwhile Kufuor administration even with Ghana’s Oil find mortgaged the country’s hydrocarbon deposits before it’s exploration.

“We virtually gave away our Oil find. The administration at the time went into poor arrangements with its partners and it was based on the agreement that the dividends accrued by the EO group was even greater than the State because we signed all kinds of agreement – that is the kind of arrangement that we had,” Kofi Adams said on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa 102.5 FM.http://ghanapoliticsonline.com

“Our investment in the oil sector has just happened,” he noted, adding that the expectation of development initiatives barring the global market slump is now able to improve steadily because the state is now managing the sector well.

Adams was reacting to widespread criticisms that the ruling NDC has failed to champion the development of the country even with the benefit of huge revenues accrued from Ghana’s Oil find, unlike the NPP regime where the Kufuor-led administration depended heavily on traditional taxes to undertake infrastructure development.

Adams who challenged such allegation said that there was a flexible economic atmosphere for the state to have made strides with development of the country citing the HIPC fund and the country’s subscription for a Eurobond and the selling of vital state funds.

“Aside this because we were a Lower Income country we had access to flexible credits but now Ghana has leaped into the status of a Lower Middle Income Country and it comes with its own stringent and tight measures and so conditions of getting certain facilities to boost infrastructure is very hard to bear now,” Adams noted.