A disclosed data from the Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL), indicates that, the controversial entity, , Frontiers Healthcare Services Limited, garnered a staggering $84 million from COVID-19-related arrival testing at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA).
Additionally, the company generated an extra $3.5 million (equivalent to GH¢29 million) from departure testing at KIA during the same period.
This disclosure follows a year-long legal dispute between Accra-based JoyNews and the GACL. The media organization had employed the Right to Information Act to investigate the revenue generated by Frontiers, which had been awarded a contract at KIA under somewhat opaque circumstances.
Initially, the GACL claimed it could not provide the requested information, citing that “passengers paid directly to Frontiers Healthcare, providers of the service.”
Subsequent revelations indicate that Ghana received under $6 million from COVID-19 arrival testing and $180,000 (equivalent to GH¢1.5 million) from departure testing during the same period.
This stark disparity in revenue distribution demonstrates that Frontiers earned over 90 percent of the total revenue and retained 92 percent of the income generated from arrival testing at KIA. Frontiers also earned 94 percent of the revenue from departure testing within the period of its contract with the GACL.
Consequently, Ghana’s share of the contract earnings represents less than 10 percent of the total revenue, with the country receiving just 7 percent from arrival testing and 6 percent from departure testing.
Despite these revelations, senior government officials, including Foreign Affairs Minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey and Health Minister Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, disclaim any knowledge of how Frontiers Health Services obtained the contract for COVID-19 testing at the airport.
North Tongu MP Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has called for an impartial audit of the COVID-19 testing agreement between Frontiers Health Services and the Ghana Airports Company Limited.