Businessman Richard Jakpa, the third accused in the ambulance procurement trial, has provided a detailed account of how the ambulance contract began.

Mr Jakpa, together with the Minority Leader in Parliament, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson are standing trial for causing financial loss to the State to the tune of 2.3 million Euros through the purchase of sub-standard ambulances.

In an exclusive interview on JoyNews on 'The Pulse' on Wednesday, July 3, Mr Jakpa explained that the ambulance procurement contract was his idea, which he pitched to the Health Minister, who subsequently endorsed it.

According to him, "the blueprint, everything emanated from me because I’m an entrepreneur. We create things and solve society's problems. We sit down, think, and find solutions to the problems."

Mr Jakpa recounted that he began preparing the ambulance contract in 2009 when George Sipa-Adjah Yankey was the Health Minister during late President Atta Mills’ tenure.

He noted that during the first State of the Nation Address (SONA) by late President Atta Mills, the President highlighted the severe shortage of ambulances in the country as a priority issue.

“So as soon as I heard it, I said I’m an entrepreneur and immediately I put a team together and tasked them to go across the country to find out the state of our ambulances.

“They went round, spent some time and realised we had about 34 ambulances or so in the country. It was serious so we put together a proposal but I thought that this was a new government, they don’t have ready cash to pay upfront so to make my offer juicier, let me contact my bank [which was Stanbic Bank], discuss with them and see whether they will get on board and let them know the business sense of it, the cash flows that will be coming in 15 to 20 years,” he said.