Ghana’s Attorney General has formally charged two former top officials of the state-owned Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF) over a failed urban railway project that cost the West African nation $2mn without yielding any results.

Solomon Asamoah, the former CEO of GIIF, and Prof. Christopher Ameyaw-Ekumfi, the fund’s ex-board chairman, were on May 13 charged before the High Court with multiple offences, including wilfully causing financial loss to the state and the unlawful dissipation of public funds.

According to Daily Graphic, the charges stem from a $2mn payment made in February 2019 to Africa Investor Holdings Limited for preliminary work on the ambitious Accra Sky Train project - a proposed public-private urban rail system that was never constructed.

Prosecutors allege the payment was made without the necessary approval from GIIF’s board, violating internal governance procedures and national laws, including the Criminal Offences Act and the Public Property Protection Decree.

“The accused persons acted outside their lawful authority and caused significant financial loss to the Republic of Ghana,” Attorney General Dr Dominic Ayine said in the court filing. “The project never materialised, and the payment was unauthorised. This is a clear case of financial misconduct.”

The Sky Train initiative, launched in 2018 with a memorandum of understanding between Ghana’s Ministry of Railways Development, Africa Investor Holdings, and GIIF, was touted as a transformative solution to Accra’s chronic traffic congestion. But investigations have since revealed a lack of due diligence and procedural irregularities in the disbursement of state funds.

Some current GIIF board members are expected to serve as prosecution witnesses when the trial opens, the Attorney General’s office confirmed.

The high-profile prosecution comes amid a broader government crackdown on financial impropriety in public institutions, including parallel investigations into alleged corruption involving ghost names on the National Service Scheme (NSS) payroll.