A social entrepreneur, Issa Ouedraogo has suggested to government to thoroughly conduct investigation on foreign investors before allowing them to operate in the country.
According to him some investors have serious criminal records in their respective countries which they want opportunity to perpetuate same in other countries.
“At the moment the government is calling for direct foreign investments which is not bad considering the situation we find ourselves now but in so doing i think it is very very important that government will set up a place where they can Investigate foreigners who are coming in. Some of them are really serious but most of them are really crooks”.
He continued “so it is very important the government have an office for that. The Ghana Investment promotion center have now set up the office which they call it “after care ” but that is only after they’ve invested I think it will be proper to set up an office where investors will be interrogated, they will be examined and right due diligent will be done after that it is very important they get to know the local partner and any set of arrangement they have to make sure the local partner has the right representative to defend the local partner’s interest.”
Issa Ouedraogo, founder of B-BOVID said this in an interview with the media at the sidelines of Ghana social enterprise forum organized at the British Council under the theme: Partnerships for sustainable development: social enterprises as catalysts for inclusive growth in Ghana.”
Addressing the participants, the entrepreneur recounted his personal experience with some alleged fraudulent foreign investors which led to huge business loss.
He alleged that some Ghanaian lawyers and local banks connive with these fraudulent investors to perpetuate illegalities causing serious financial loss to the country particularly in the agriculture sector.
“Until Government of Ghana identifies these abnormalities silently creating an avoidable lacuna along the value chain of the Agricultural sector, and stem the tide, nothing significant would be achieved whilst the pockets of individuals fronting for fake foreign investors as lawyers, and banks would continue to get full,” he said.
He stated that, he negotiated with a bank in Sudan for an interest free loan facility which had to pass through a bank in Ghana but the bank placed throat cutting interest on it at the blind side of central government.
This issue, he said must not be swept under carpet, and that government must cause serious investigation into some of these issues.
Issa Ouedraogo, he said another bank, illegally withdrew monies from an account he jointly owned with another company.
Ouedraogo quest to promote peri-urban farming, initiated in 2012 the Ghana Peri-urban Vegetables Value Chain Project (GPVVCP), which is a subsidiary project under GCAP being funded by a grant of US$2.85 million from the Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF) through a Trust Fund Arrangement with the World Bank.
Unfortunately, his company was eliminated at the implementation stage in 2017 with an excuse that the company never showed interest.
The project is being implemented by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
In his attempt to fight for justice in the law courts as he exposed the double standard of a company pretending to engage in social entrepreneurship which culminated in the partnership with his company B-BOVID, he said Ghanaian lawyers working in the cover of darkness for monetization of justice, then jumped to the defense of the said company obviously sending a wrong signal out there that the justice system of the country was for the highest bidder where crooks could maneuver and manipulate their way through, once they had money.
All these negative developments, he underscored, would continue to work impervious against the Agricultural sector and ultimately the national economy.
It would further move mountains to exacerbate the worsening growing phenomenon of unemployment in the country, constantly ringing profusely into the ears of entrepreneurs, political leaders, and government officials.
He, therefore, cautioned all stakeholders working in the Agricultural industry to guard against entertaining diatribes, selfishness, excessive greed, and ignorantly promoting fake investors who clandestinely might be conniving with desperate lawyers to milk the Agricultural sector dry.
He advised central government to create an opportunity for all the above mentioned issues to be investigated to save the country from sinking further under the guise of foreign direct investment.
Source: Mybrytnewsroom.com/Obed Ansah
