The minority in parliament has accused government of planning to spend the yet-to-be acquired $600 million COCOBOD loan on the 2020 general elections.
According to Member of Parliament for Ajumako Enyan Essiam, Cassiel Ato Forson, government is in a haste to get approval for the loan in anticipation of the 2020 general elections.
“Unfortunately, this one per the agreement, the draw down should be 6 months, but we are told it would be done in 2 months, what this means is that Ghana government and COCOBOD is going to pay interest on the loan whereas the money is sittings idle.
“We all know we are going into an election year, and what this government seeks to do is to take 600 million US dollars and use for their campaign and eventually after they win find a way to reimburse it.’’
He further hinted the minority will write to the lenders to renegotiate the structure of the loan.
‘’Today, the minority in parliament is going to write officially to the lenders protesting the use of proceeds on the 600 million and that the structure of the loan agreement is unacceptable and an outlier and nobody should accept this to happen in our republic.’’
Mr. Ato Forson made this known in parliament on Tuesday, November 5 after the minority blocked the approval of the $600 million COCOBOD loan, questioning the loan structure and asking for further details.
Though the house approved the finance committee’s report on it, it had to defer the resolution and approval after a heated debate over the loan.
The loan is a 7-year loan facility from the African Development Bank expected to be used as a capital injection to raise the country’s cocoa production level.
There was a deadlock on the floor of Parliament on Tuesday when it was time for the resolution and approval for the loan.
Member of Parliament for Asunafo South and Ranking Member for Parliament’s Agriculture committee, Eric Opoku, who revealed government has planned to pump a whopping $5 million to purchase chocolate for students and the military under promotion of consumption, insisted the move was unreasonable.
By Selorm Amenyah|3news.com|Ghana