The Head of the Legon Centre for Asian Studies, Dr. Lloyd Amoah, has downplayed suspicions around China’s commitment to invest about $21 billion dollars into Ghana’s economy.
Following the Vice President Dr Mahamadu Bawumia’s visit, a number of Memoranda of Understanding were signed to invest $15 billion dollars while an additional $4 billion dollars is expected to be signed soon.
But critics say the offer is too good to be true, given the country’s previous experience with the $3 billion dollars Chinese loan which was never fully disbursed.
But speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Tuesday, Dr. Lloyd Amoah advised Ghana to rather take advantage of the help China is offering to grow the economy.
“These are guys who are becoming a world power, they have the resources, but they want to gain from those resources. So you have to do your homework well….It’s a mixture of how the policy infrastructure at the highest level in Ghana and also in terms of bureaucracy how they are fed into the whole processes. So if you don’t do your homework well and you are not able to take advantage of an opportunity and then you say we should be skeptical, I don’t get your reasoning, it’s a very dubious one.”
He explained that most developed countries capitalized on other countries to be great.
“All the major countries in the world—Japan took advantage of America when America was powerful. China took advantage of Japan even though Japan is its arch-rival and rode to greatness. Korea took advantage of America,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the Integrated Social Development Centre, Dr. Steve Manteaw, who also spoke on the Citi Breakfast Show, said he is “cautiously skeptical” about the help China is offering.
“Whether or not we will be able to access what has been said will be dependent on our ability to meet the conditions or the triggers for the release of these funds… we may need to have the full benefit of what the conditions are to be able to assess,” he added.
