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Ghana Airport Company received approximately US$1.16 million from a total of US$17.35 million as its share of revenue accrued from the COVID-19 testing at the Kotoka International Airport.
Frontiers Healthcare Services, on the other hand, retained US$16.21 million as its share.
Minister for Transport, Kweku Ofori Asiamah, made this disclosure during question time in Parliament on Thursday when he responded to an urgent question by the Minority leader, Haruna Iddrisu.
The Minority leader demanded to know how much accrued from the contract between the Ghana Airport Company and Frontiers Healthcare Services for the conduct of the COVID-19 testing at the Kotoka International Airport as at end of December 2020 and the breakdown of the distribution/utilization of the said amount to the respective contracting parties.
The Minister indicated that the contract agreement between Ghana Airport and Frontiers for the conduct of the covid-19 testing at the Kotoka Airport started on the 1st of September 2020.
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The measure, he said, was taken to curtail the importation of the coronavirus disease into the country through Kotoka, which is the foremost entry point by air passengers from various countries.
According to him, the strategy was to test and discover infected persons for treatment at various designated health facilities and isolation centers.
“By the concession agreement, Ghana Airport Company was supposed to receive $10 for each test done and Frontier Health Services keeps the rest as their service charge. The total cost for one test was $150. So the share of Frontier Health Services was $140 while that of Ghana Airport Company was $10,” he said.
He explained that between September and December 2020, the total amount realized from the conduct of the test at Kotoka was US$17,349,500.
He stated that per the concession agreement between the two companies, Frontiers Healthcare Services retained US$16,202,000 for its services during the period.
The Ghana Airport Company, he said, on the other hand received US$1,157,300 as its share of the royalties for the same period.
Mr. Ofori Asiamah averred that a total number of 117,187 passengers came through the Kotoka Airport during the period out of which 115,730 paid for testing while 1,157 consisting of children were exempted.
According to him, information from Ghana Airport indicates 704 persons tested positive for the coronavirus from 1st September to 31st December 2020 while those who tested negative for the same were 116,483 persons.
“It is worth noting that Frontier Healthcare Services and Ghana Airport Company are the only parties to the concession agreement,” he said.
The Minister averred that but for this intervention at the Kotoka International Airport; the 704 positive cases detected through the testing would have gone into the general population in the various parts of the country and infected a good number of Ghanaians.
The testing exercise at the airport, he said, has therefore achieved its purpose because Ghana’s case count could have more had this facility not been instituted at Kotoka.
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Frontpageghana.com/Ghana
