When we keep fighting for Ghanaian contractors to be paid, we are fighting for customers/investors to get their money.
How much? GHS 2.2 billion is currently locked up in the process from Gold Coast Fund Management alone. Other Ghanaian financial institutions have funds locked up in infrastructure projects. The contractors are going bankrupt. The customers have it worse. They are suffering. When a contractor is not paid after three years of completing a job, the financial institution does not get paid. The customers who invested their monies with the financial institutions don’t get paid.
Who should fund infrastructure – Roads, bridges, schools, etc – in Ghana? Gold Coast has been doing it for 15 years. Over 14 billion Ghana Cedis invested. Now with a portfolio of 2.2 billion Ghana Cedis. It is government that stopped giving advance payment to contractors and asked them to pre-finance projects. Gold Coast stepped in to support our indigenous Ghanaian contractors and has funded over 600 projects. This is a good thing the company has done.
Our concern is to get the payment process going so contractors can complete projects, get them certified, get paid so they can pay back what they owe to Gold Coast. SO THAT GOLD COAST CAN PAY BACK MONEY TO ITS CUSTOMERS/INVESTORS.
This is NOT Nduom’s money. It is not politics. It is pocket level economics. The money is in Ghana with government agencies and in infrastructure projects.
Note: this is not the only investment made by Gold Coast which is why it paid back over 1billion Ghana cedis in 2018 and has paid about GHS100 million this year.