General News of Tuesday, 14 August 2018
Source: Starrfmonline.com
2018-08-14
Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration
Ghana risks losing a parcel of land worth $80 million located in the capital of Pakistan, Islamabad.
The land which was allocated to the country for construction of its embassy has currently been encroached upon by Malaysia.
According to the 2016 auditor general report, both France and Canada have expressed interest in the land prompting the Pakistani authorities to urge Ghana to develop the land or lose it.
Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey said her Ministry has no money for construction of a fence wall to secure the land at a cost of $180,000.
“What will be the ideal thing is to wall it and secure the piece of land. Unfortunately, it will cost us about €160,000 which we do not have at the moment. So it is the issue of lack of resources. The limited resources that we have, we are having to apply it to the countries where we have missions,” she told the Committee.
Asked if Ghana was that poor it could not get €160,000 to secure the land which is valued $40 million, the Foreign Affairs minister assured that she would look for the money “someway, somehow” to secure the land.