Ghana Has No Resources To Set Up National Airline � Minister

Calls for government to own majority stake in the new national airline may yield no positive results. Transport Minister, Dzifa Attivor has told Citi News the country does not have the resources to do so. Ghana has begun moves to establish a new national airline under a Public Private Partnership (PPP); under this new initiative Ghana will own ten percent of the airline. Ghana is receiving funding from the World Bank to support the PPP project and is currently waiting for the go ahead from the Bank to proceed to the next stage. But there have been calls for government to increase its stake in the airline. Minister of Transport, Dzifa Attivor speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show said government does not have the money to set up a wholly owned national carrier. She however said government will consider increasing its stake in the new national airline when it takes off. �We are being careful with the process to establish a new airline because of our history with national carriers. Setting up an airline also requires a lot of resources and currently we don�t have the resources so we want to have the private sector on board.� As many as thirteen companies have presented proposals to government hoping to partner it to revive the national airline. Ms. Attivor said the evaluation process for all thirteen companies have been completed awaiting a final confirmation from the World Bank. She added that no preference will be given to any investor, be it local or foreign under the PPP project.