The Minister of Aviation, Joseph Kofi Adda has disclosed that the Ghana Airport Company Limited is in financial crisis.
He said the company’s financial health was as a result of debt servicing of the newly built Terminal 3 at the Kotoka International Airport.
The airline industry have been heavily hit by the global Covid19 pandemic.
The $250 million T3 projects partly funded by the African Development Bank was to ease pressure on the existing two terminals expected to handle up to five million passengers a year, with expansion potential of up to 6.5 million passengers.
“The Ghana Airport Company Limited is currently distressed due to heavy debts. The Ghana Airport Company is choked with this T3 debt which it has been paying for a long time. Because of that, they have not been able to make any extra revenues to undertake other projects”, he told the press.
“The government has been renegotiating it till it is good enough and so we continue to look for ways to bring it down even lower,” he explained.
On the back of the airport’s rising debt, Kofi Adda raised concerns on the need for strategic partnerships to better the aviation sector.
The workers union of the aviation sector protested this week on government intention to sell the Ghana Airports.
“The terminal 3 building and the way it was financed is really giving the airport a headache. The total debt was about $400million but they have been able to settle a portion of the debt leaving about $300million and I think they are negotiating to see how they can bring that debt down further. They have done quite well in servicing that debt consistently”, the minister said.
The government has failed to achieve a sustainable engagement with the various stakeholders to design proactive measures aimed at improving the aviation sector in order to make Ghana the aviation hub within the sub-region.
–
Ghanamatters.com
