Vodafone Group Plc’s $900-million deal to buy a 70% stake in Ghana Telecoms was illegal and should be renegotiated, a Ghanaian inter-ministerial committee set up to review the purchase said on Friday.
The British cellphone company bought the stake in the Ghanaian firm last August, a deal that was hotly debated in parliament and found its harshest critics in the now-ruling National Democratic Congress.
”The sale and purchase agreement in its negotiation and ratification breached many laws of Ghana, including the 1992 Constitution,” the committee said in its report to the government of President John Atta Mills.
The committee argued the price was too low and the government did not receive an adequate return.
Ghana’s Communications Ministry said on Friday the government expects to make a decision on whether to follow through on a renegotiation within the next two weeks.
A Vodafone spokesperson said the company had not received a copy of the committee’s findings.
”Clearly, we’ll like to have a copy of the recommendations in order to be in a position to comment and we hope to be ready within the two weeks set by the government for its statement,” spokesperson Bobby Leach told Reuters. — Reuters