Privatisation of UG over $64m project claim false – Africa Integras CEO

CEO of Africa Integras, Andrea Pizziconi has described as false reports that her company had planned to privatise the University of Ghana if the university failed to meet its side of the bargain in a $64 million infrastructure expansion agreement.

Africa Integras entered into the agreement with the University of Ghana in 2014 which was signed by its former Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ernest Aryeetey to invest US$64 million in the construction of new students’ housing on the Legon campus.

The project was structured under a 25-year Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) arrangement.

It was also to construct a new dedicated facility for the College of Basic and Applied Sciences and the Institute of Technology and Applied Sciences, as well as a new facility for the College of Health Sciences.

Education Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, once suggested that the University of Ghana risked being privatised if it failed to meet its obligations in the agreement.

But Andrea Pizziconi insisted that Africa Integras had other means to enforce that contract that did not involve privatising the school.

“There is nothing in the contract that gives us any right to operate the university whatsoever. That is not what we do. There is no mechanism in the contract that allows us to enforce the contract.”

The CEO of Africa Integras said she still longed for the deal, which has been stalled, to be realised.

She said it was “completely tragic that those buildings are not even built. They are 65 percent complete.”

“I think about the 1,200 construction workers that lost their jobs and didn’t get Christmas bonuses when the project was suspended and I think about the thousands of young people who could have gone to UG but may or may not ever get a university education.”

More info on the Africa Integras project

Africa Integras under the agreement was also to procure thousands of new students’ hostel beds, to be divided between undergraduate and graduate students mostly to serve the College of Health Sciences.

However, following the exit of Prof. Aryeetey and the swearing-in the new Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ebenezer Oduro-Owusu, it was alleged that the arrangement by Prof. Aryeetey did not offer value for money.

He also claimed that Prof. Aryeetey had received financial inducements to allow the project to proceed since it was economically unreasonable and would cost the University more money.

Prof. Aryeeteyhowever rubbished these claims, explaining that UG had gone through all the right procedures before signing the agreement with the company.

He insisted the processes leading up to the signing of the agreement with Integras were transparent, with all relevant stakeholders being kept informed of all developments.

Source: ghanaweb.com