{"id":54605,"date":"2014-10-08T19:43:15","date_gmt":"2014-10-08T19:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=54605"},"modified":"2014-10-08T22:33:00","modified_gmt":"2014-10-08T22:33:00","slug":"negotiate-better-loan-terms-afenyo-markin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/10\/negotiate-better-loan-terms-afenyo-markin\/","title":{"rendered":"Negotiate better loan terms – Afenyo-Markin"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Effutu, Alex Afenyo-Markin has admonished government to always negotiate better terms for the many loans it contracts.<\/span><\/p>\n

This, according to him, will not burden the country with what he described as\u00a0 \u201cunnecessary debts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The MP was of the opinion that government shortchanges Ghanaians by poorly negotiating loan facilities.<\/p>\n

[contextly_sidebar id=”vJTVvbxhGLJqM8SiVYJuyNCrzbFDONiI”]Last week, the lawmakers were summoned for an emergency sitting<\/strong> <\/span><\/a>in which they approved a number of new multi-million dollar loan and other agreements.<\/p>\n

The Deputy Minority in Parliament, Dominic Nitiwul bemoaned the practice where Parliament is called for emergency sittings to approve loans without proper scrutiny<\/strong><\/span><\/a> to the loan agreements.<\/p>\n

The Africa Centre for Parliamentary Affairs<\/strong><\/span><\/a> has also charged Parliament to stop the practice of approving agreements within short periods.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Citi News<\/strong>, the Effutu MP mentioned that before the China Development Bank (CBD) loan agreement was approved, the Minority was calling for due diligence to be made.<\/p>\n

But he stated that the refusal of the Majority to heed to their warning, the disbursements of the money has hit a snag.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at the CDB loan; we warned them, we advised them and today, they\u2019ve come back to tell us that they are having problems with the conditions for disbursements. They are now reducing it to 1.5 billion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The CDB loan has delayed for almost three years; although key points in the loan agreement has been finalized.<\/p>\n

The Chinese government was expected to disburse the full amount in three years in three tranches, in some of the most productive areas of the\u00a0Ghana\u00a0economy seen as one of the biggest in the West-African sub-region.<\/p>\n

However, since the signing of the final agreement, China has disbursed only $600 million to Ghana for the gas project, which is under the control of the Ghana Gas company.<\/p>\n

But Ghana\u00a0continues to pay commitment fees on the whole loan.<\/p>\n

Afenyo-Markin, who is also a member of Parliament\u2019s Finance Committee, told Citi News<\/strong>, it is only proper for the attention of the government to loopholes in loan agreements.<\/p>\n

He urged government to do more due diligence when contracting these loans.<\/p>\n

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By: Efua Idan Osam\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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