Ghana’s efforts to establish a national airline has hit a snag as officials struggle to complete the necessary processes to start operations before the close of the year.

Efforts to have the national carrier in the skies since 2017 have been fruitless, although officials have already registered a joint venture — Ghana Airlines — acquired an office block, set up a board of directors for the airline and appointed an accountable manager.

Information the Daily Graphic obtained from the Ministry of Transport indicates that the recruitment and training of critical office staff is ongoing and so are the designing of a corporate logo and branding, and the development of management and non-technical operating manuals.

The Daily Graphic has established through a year-long investigation that a selected strategic partner, Ashanti Airlines Limited (AAL), has no aircraft, no licence, and is without the financial strength for the business.

The Daily Graphic’s sources at the Office of the Registrar of Companies indicated that the Ashanti Airlines Limited was incorporated on December 13, 2017. It won the bid ahead of Ethiopian Airlines and EgyptAir that had been major players in the aviation sector in Africa and the rest of the world for several decades as well as JNH Group, a company with a group net worth of over $1.5 billion but was yet to acquire an Air Carrier Licence (ACL) and Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC).