Diasporan Investors Team Up to Buy GT
Public Agenda (Accra)
NEWS
16 July 2007
Posted to the web 16 July 2007
Accra
A Ghanaian Diaspora professional group, called the Ghana Leadership Union (GLU)
has announced plans to pool resources to buy a controlling stake in one of the
country's biggest assets, Ghana Telecom.
GLU, a non-partisan NGO with membership based in the U.S.A, U.K., the E.U.,
Australia and Asia, says Ghanaian professionals based aboard have been shut out
of the process of participating in the investment and management of divested
State Owned Enterprises for too long; hence the decision to join the race for
GT.
In furtherance of that, GLU has created a novel investment framework to attract
financial and human capital to formally express interest in the acquisition of a
controlling stake in Ghana Telecom Ltd.
In a statement copied to Public Agenda, the President of GLU, Dr. Kwaku A.
Danso, stated, "the founders of our nation Ghana did not use taxpayers' funds to
set up State-owned enterprises (SOEs) only to be sold to foreigners, or to
insiders of the government who use proxies to buy these SoE's and leave the real
stakeholders with the debts. This practice must be stopped, by any means
necessary".
The statement said the GLU members are seasoned professionals with more than 20
years of telecommunications and information systems management and will bring
investment capital in excess of US$500M to this venture.
This unprecedented investment approach facilitated by the GLU will also enable
the participation of accredited investors within Ghana and abroad with as little
as $1,000 per unit.
Asked about the investment strategy, the initiative's lead promoter in the UK,
lawyer George Asomaning responded, "It is our intention to ensure that as much
of the actual investment received gets channeled into the infrastructural
development of Ghana Telecom, so as to position the company to deliver on its
promise and to return a sizeable profit for the shareholders, the citizens of
Ghana".
Nifa Bankroh, the organizer of the "Lets buy Ghana Telecom" initiative stated,
"If Ghanaians do not get involved in the acquisition, ownership and management
of significant state owned enterprises that are being divested, the likelihood
of Ghanaian nationals being able to control the factors that affect their
economic future will be marginal at best, and probably negligible.
Many Ghanaian businessmen and professional groups are of the opinion that
conditions imposed by so-called development partners or financiers, opening
Ghana's markets to so-called globalization, has not proven economically
beneficial over the last three decades. Professor Mintzberg of Canada has
described globalization with respect to development as "a sham". Whilst foreign
investors and competition are necessary and welcome tools in Ghana, this global
inequity, coupled with a comparative lack of openness and transparency has led
to an unequal playing field in the world of business dealings and negotiations.
The result is the massive brain drain, high accumulated debt burden, and high
unemployment and underemployment in Ghana, which call for new development
strategies.
Commenting on the sale of state-owned enterprises and the ongoing telecoms
divestiture process, Michel Bowman-Amuah, an ICT entrepreneur resident in the
United States,Stated that; "there are certain strategic national assets that
must be safeguarded and placed above the drive for investment capital and chief
among those is our national information and communications infrastructure. There
has to be more regulatory oversight into corporate takeovers, mergers or
acquisitions of these strategic national assets, if we are to maintain our
sovereignty and protect our security interests".
Industry watchers say, Ghana's wireless phone networks are dominated by foreign-
owned and controlled entities that were granted these franchises at a fraction
of prevailing market rates, creating a very lopsided playing field which places
the fixed network carriers at a significant competitive disadvantage. Recently,
the largest operator (by subscriber base), Spacefon™ /Scancom™ was acquired in a
multi-billion dollar transaction by Areeba™, another foreign concern without as
much as public hearings into the process and we the general public are yet to be
briefed about the details or benefits that the citizens of Ghana have realized
in this sale.
The above transaction has been clouded by a shareholder proxy battle between the
Lebanese operators of Scancom™ and the Ghanaian founder of Spacefon™, who was
allegedly forced out with political support of the previous administration.
Though the matter is pending in the courts, the government administration and
regulatory agency, the National Communication Agency (NCA), has been eerily
silent on the matter which begs the question about what investment protections
exist for indigenous investors within Ghana's corporate regulatory system.
Also recently, the Government of Ghana settled a shareholder dispute with the
former minority shareholder in Ghana Telecom, Telecom Malaysia, who had
purchased the rights to increase their shareholding to a controlling stake, but
were unceremoniously expelled when the current administration assumed power in
2001. This dispute has shaken foreign investor confidence in the long term
viability of the divestiture process and its stability.
Investors need to be certain that their multi million dollar investments are
secure regardless of ruling regime. It must be noted that a Ghanaian-owned and
controlled investor group is no different and would require that specific
safeguards are in place to protect the interests of their shareholders.
It is envisioned that this investment framework created by the GLU shall be
reused by other industry sector professionals as other State owned enterprises
are divested by the Government of Ghana in the near future. "It is our intent to
safeguard the national interest by facilitating the participation of Ghanaians
everywhere in the Nation-building process."
Mama Brenya Twumasi, a legal scholar and interested investor with many years of
stock ownership experience writing from San Antonio, Texas, warned that "our
nation cannot continue to ignore the views of the people, and that in essence,
governmental transparency and accountability is a must in all present and future
dealings if we, as a Nation State, wish to beviewed as credible by our allies
and other Sovereign States." It is the general agreement of most Ghanaians
surveyed on the issue that Ghana has too many skilled, experienced and competent
Ghanaian professionals, educated as part of the initial plan of Ghana's first
President, who are willing and able to own and manage our strategic assets. It
is therefore unconscionable to simply stand by while foreign corporate raiders
are ushered in on the red carpet and given the keys to our National treasure
troves.