In 2010, I was in Beijing when the late President John Evans Atta Mills led a government delegation to seek funding for Ghana’s development projects. The original plan was to request $3 billion, but a prominent chief advised the team to go for $10 billion. To our surprise, China Development Bank (CDB) went further and offered $13 billion on one condition: the money would only be released for bankable projects. Only $3 billion was to be disbursed upfront. The rest depended on the quality of projects we could present.
