Japan: Perfect Source Of Beneficial PPP Projects For Ghana?

Genuine private public partnerships (PPP) that actually benefit the Republic of Ghana -  as opposed to opening the doors to the national treasury for ruthless exploitation by private-sector carpetbaggers -  could provide our nation with infrastructure,  at very little cost to Ghanaian taxpayers.


Since Japan is  currently in the news,  because it has just hosted a summit on African development attended by Ghana's President Mahama, I will use it as an example,  to illustrate how genuine PPP projects can benefit Ghana and private-sector investors equally.


Like many wealthy developed nations, Japan's economy has been in the doldrums for decades - and its annual  GDP figures over the period tell that unfortunate  no-growth-story perfectly.


Fast-growing Ghana,  an emerging market blessed with a stable democracy,  and a peaceful political climate,  as well as an industrious and welcoming people, could therefore  become a magnet for Japanese companies, desperate to find lucrative overseas opportunities,  in a global economy now  more or less dominated by its arch-rival China.


If those in charge of our nation are creative enough in their thinking, they could ask Japanese companies with suitable  expertise,  to bid for a number of PPP infrastructure projects in Ghana, to be  wholly financed by private investors, such as the following:


(1) A PPP project to build and operate a modern railway system, which  connects all the regional capitals to Accra,   and reaches  Paga, Elubo and Aflao as well.


Many Japanese companies are capable of  sourcing funding for such a build, operate and transfer PPP project.


(2) Japanese power companies  could also be attracted to come to Ghana to take advantage of Ghana's dream  of self-sufficiency  in power generation, and becoming  the leading exporter of power in  West Africa.


They could build  their own gas-fired double-cycle power plants; offshore wind-power farms; tidal-wave power plants;  and mini-hydro power  plants.


To save them from  having to build their own power lines and electricity distribution network, they could be offered the opportunity to takeover the Ghana Grid Company (Gridco), the Volta River Authority (VRA)  and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) -  paying their full value and assuming  all their debt  -  in exchange for charging  electricity rates the two sides  deem fit (but which are fair by international power industry standards)  for the 25 years they will be allowed to operate Ghana's  power system as a PPP project financed entirely by them.


(3) Japanese road construction companies could also be given the opportunity,  to construct a  concrete tolled motorway network linking all the regional capitals to Accra, and  be allowed to charge their own toll rates (within reason, naturally) and repatriate 100 percent of their annual  profits tax-free,  over the 25-year period they will  operate and maintain that  concrete motorway network, which will be financed entirely by them.


(4) Japanese companies could also be given the PPP opportunity,  to build canals to form a water transportation system,  connecting  the  south and north of Ghana, based on the Volta Lake.


They   could also  operate boats (including hovercraft and hydrofoils) and barges on that water transportation system in addition, for 25 years -  repatriating all their profits tax free.


Ghana's contribution to such PPP projects with Japanese companies, would simply be to:


* Make all imports for the execution of the projects tax-free.


* Ensure that Japanese employed to work on the projects do not have  to pay Ghanaian income taxes on their salaries.


* Remove all local  bureaucratic impediments to the projects'  successful implementation.


The beauty of striking such deals for PPP infrastructure projects, is that unlike  contracting commercial loans for infrastructure projects,   present and future generations Ghanaians,    will not be burdened with the cost of paying for those PPP infrastructure projects,  financed and built by  Japanese companies.


Naturally,  the agreements covering all  the Japanese PPP projects in Ghana, should  state that the construction work must meet and conform to Japanese standards - which are amongst the most stringent in the world.

The value for Ghana and its people,  would be that there would be no need to use any  taxpayers' money,  to build a modern rail network linking all the regional capitals to Accra; build a concrete  motorway network linking all the regional capitals to Accra; have canals linking the southern half of Ghana to the northern half of the country with the Volta Lake; and have a modernised 21st century mixed-energy power system.


Because ethical behaviour is an integral part of Japanese  culture, unlike companies from elsewhere in the globe,  Japanese  companies  tend to take issues  of corporate good governance seriously, when operating overseas.


For that reason, they will make perfect PPP partners for Ghana - meaning that  they will never cheat us by doing shoddy work in any of their PPP projects: and above all,  they will neither  be  disrespectful to Ghanaians nor be contemptuous of  Ghanaian culture.


Instead of seeing Japan as a place to take the begging-bowl to, and to borrow money from, to saddle future generations of Ghanaians with yet more debt, let those who now rule our nation think creatively - and see Japan  as a perfect source of  PPP projects beneficial to  Ghana and all  its people. A word to the wise.


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