Kufuor rice at BNI

A clearer picture of the rice import from India last year in the face of an imminent food shortage in the country, now a source of incessant invitations to former diplomats and bankers by the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), has been painted by the immediate former Deputy High Commissioner to the Asian country.

The former diplomat, Mr. Kwaku Ampratwum Sarpong, now Executive Director of the Ghana-India Business Network, took his turn at the BNI headquarters on Wednesday where like he promised earlier, he took his security hosts through the genesis and implementation of the concessionary rice import from India at a time when the commodity was banned from exportation.

Suspicions of malfeasance by the Mills-led administration has led to a number of actions such as the seizure of the passport of the former Foreign Affairs Minister, Hon. Osei Adjei and a number of invitations to persons thought to have benefited monetarily from the transaction, for as it were, interrogations on the subject.

Mr. Ampratum Sarpong told his hosts that the deal was initiated by former President John Agyekum Kufuor when he visited India at the height of the global food crunch.

Former President Kufuor, desirous of seizing the opportunity of India’s comparative advantage in rice production, asked to have some of the commodity exported to his Ghana even as a ban on the commodity was in place, he said.

“I am here to help you get to the bottom of it. You would find out that there is nothing in it and you should stop wasting resources and time on this issue,” he told his hosts.

“I believe that you do not have the facts. That is why you are wasting everybody’s time,” he said as a preamble to his discourse.

During the former President’s visit to India, he met with the Indian Prime Minister and discussed the possibility of having rice exported to Ghana to beef up the country’s stock of the commodity to obviate a food shortage in the country, he said.

This was a time when food crisis had hit Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal and Ghana.

The request was received favourably by the Indians in the presence of then Foreign Affairs Minister, Osei Adjei, he added.

“Our Indian hosts promised to look into the request.”

When Kufuor attended the UN Assembly gathering in the US, he met the Indian PM including that country’s External Affairs Minister and he raised the issue again, the former diplomat told his hosts.

Other countries like Nigeria, Senegal and Cameroun also asked for the concession, he said, adding that eventually, each of the four countries was allowed a quantity of 60,000 metric tones after the export ban was lifted for the purpose.

“We had a call from the Joint Secretary of India who told us that they were in contact with the Trading Wing of the Ministry of Commerce, the State Trading Corporation (STC), the seller, whose MD/Chairman said we needed an exemption letter to allow the export because of the ban at the time,” he said.

The STC being the seller of the commodity recommended a shipper, Amira Foods India Limited, which has a track record of doing business with Ghana.
“We could have rejected the recommendation but considering the track record behind them, we agreed,” he went on.

A draft contract was prepared in which the Ghana government was represented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Investment Bank (NIB), he related.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs came into the picture because the sector minister was in the company of the then President at the time the deal was arranged, he pointed out, adding that “in India, such business arrangements are undertaken by the equivalent of the Foreign Ministry, the External Affairs Ministry”.

He pointed out that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs contacted the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), Prudential Bank and National Investment Bank (NIB) to syndicate the import.

The NIB, he recalled, stated that the outlay was too small for the number of banks to deal with and that they could handle it alone, which was agreed upon.
But for the foregone, the arrangement was going to be in the ratio of NIB 40 percent, Prudential Bank, 30 percent and the ADB, 30 percent.

The Indian STC insisted that the company raising the Letters of Credit (LCs) must be part of the contract, he explained, adding that the NIB was the consignee.

The first draft captured $640 per metric tonne which was forwarded by the STC, the trading wing of the Commerce Ministry, to the NIB which responded but objected to Clause 14.

The clause dealt with the issue of terms of payment that is 3-day payment period, which the NIB found too short and sought for a 180-day credit.

The Indians noted that the 180-day extension calls for a higher interest and this changed the price from $640 to $684, a development which naturally changed the price of the commodity, he noted.

The former diplomat explained that there were a few challenges over the payment between the CitiBank, NIB and the Indian side.

The imports met with a number of deliberate challenges by local Indian importers who saw in the business a blow to their profits.

“When the consignment arrived, we were out of government. NIB, the consignees, considered the price of the commodity too high and that they were going to sell at a loss at the time the commodity arrived,” he said.
It was not as if the then MD of the NIB undertook the arrangement independent of others, he said, explaining that a certain Ms. Juliet Boakye in-charge of international banking at the bank managed the transaction thereof.

With more rice now on the market and the likely lifting of the ban on rice export from India, the price of the commodity would plummet further, he advised.

The former Minister of Foreign Affairs has already taken his turn at the BNI where his passport was seized over the rice import.

The Indian government is said to be watching the unfolding development with keen interest and the diplomatic fallout, DAILY GUIDE has learnt, is not in the interest of Ghana.

India is a regular provider of funds for development projects in Ghana over the past years. The Jubilee House was constructed through their largesse and in the pipeline is the construction of a diplomatic training school to serve the West African sub-region.

Observers think India could re-consider its annual golden handshakes to Ghana. Last year, it provided $22 million, having doled out $25 million two years ago.

The Prof Oquaye and Ampratwum Sarpong-led Ghana High Commission concluded a $580 million request which could go either way.By A.R. Gomda

Source: Daily Guide