Amid the controversy surrounding the government’s ambitious Petroleum Hub Project in the Western Region, the Vice President of IMANI-Africa has expressed pessimism about the project indicating it is “bound to fail.”
It is the ambition of the government to establish a US$60 billion petroleum industrial hub in the Western Region. As part of the efforts, a 20,000-acre land has been compulsorily acquired by the government in the Western Nzema Traditional Area but not without resistance from some concerned youth activists in the area.
As the government gears to cut sod for the commencement of the project tomorrow, Monday, 19th August 2024, the presidency has dismissed a petition by the youth activists that was seeking that the President ensure that the acquisition of the 20,000-acre land complied with all legal requirements.
Despite all the commotion around the project, Bright Simons believes that the current project design will never come to fruition. He explains that the estimated US$60 billion project has been poorly planned. “The Petroleum Hub is poorly designed and in its current current state will never be built,” Bright Simons said in a tweet.
Justifying his conviction, he alleged that the consortium awarded the contract has no financial power to undertake such an ambitious project adding that, Touchstone Capital Group Holdings, the main financier in the consortium has neither money nor real offices and employees.
“The only funding source in the consortium engaged by the government to build the Hub – Touchstone Capital Group Holdings – has no money. It uses a cheap Dropbox in London Marylebone. It has no real offices or employees.
“Touchstone Capital’s entity in London is dormant and has only £1000 in capital. Its only serious vehicle was tossed off the Luxembourg Stock Exchange more than 5 years ago after it ran out of money& couldn’t meet its reporting obligations,” the Vice President of IMANI-Africa alleged.
He added that “the other entities in the consortium are Chinese contractors. They need to be paid to mobilize for the project. But no Chinese funder has committed to the project and won’t commit given the lack of bankable business plan.”
With these, Mr. Simons indicated that he cannot fathom why the chiefs in the area are supporting the government to seize lands for a project “bound to fail” with its current design.
He fears that upon the failure of the project, a few rich people will misappropriate the land for commercial real estate business at the expense of the ordinary people whose lands were seized.
