US makes more in visa fees than aid they give Ghana – Hopeson Adorye claims

Member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Hopeson Yaovi Adorye has advanced that the West sees Africa as a place where they engage in pillaging which he likened to illegal small-scale mining known as galamsey.

He explained that monies extended to developing countries as aid was often recouped by these Western nations in the form of visa application fees.

Citing specifically the case of the United States, Adorye without any statistics, said the Embassy located at Cantonments in Accra raked in more money than the US gave to Ghana in aid.

He said President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ agenda was seen as a threat by most Western nations because it threatened their interests.

“If the G20 look at Akufo-Addo, they begin to worry because it is here in Africa that they get their resources. Just like people go into the forests to engage in illegal small-scale mining, galamsey; the West uses Africa as their galamsey site.

“They come to take all their resources from here. If America claims to give us USD100 million in aid, it all comes from the building at Cantonments. A day’s visa fees collected at that Embassy is no joke. So, they gather our own monies and give it back to us in the pretext of aid and we are happy,” he claimed.

He also slammed the credit downgrades that the Ghanaian economy was suffering alleging that the downgrades were engineered to force governments to go to the International Monetary Fund and other development partners for economic assistance.