Farmers Review Africa March/April 2020 Farmers Review Africa March - April 2020 digital ( | Page 9
NEWS
“You have been in the trenches with us,”
Ghana Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia tells African Development Bank
T
he African Development Bank’s support for
the west African nation Ghana has boosted
its government’s efforts to consolidate
the economy, the country’s Vice President,
Mahamudu Bawumia said on Monday.
Bawumia, welcoming a team of Executive
Directors and senior officials of the Bank on
an official visit, cited various Bank-supported
projects, especially in the areas of infrastructure,
agriculture and technical innovation, as examples
of interventions that have helped to boost the
government’s efforts to consolidate the economy.
“Those are areas very critical for us and we are
happy to have the African Development Bank
helping us. You have been in the trenches with
us and things are now going well,” Bawumia said.
The Bank delegation, led by Bright Okogu,
Executive Director for Nigeria and Sao Tome &
Principe, will meet local authorities, the private
sector, civil society and other development
collaborators.
Bawumia said Ghana’s economy has begun to
show great potential following three years of bold
fiscal policy reforms, which included the adoption
of a law capping fiscal deficit at 5% of Gross
Domestic Product as part of measures to enhance
debt sustainability and win investor confidence.
“These are not easy to do but it had to be done and
we’re seeing the benefits…. All the indicators are in
the right direction; macroeconomic conditions have
stabilised, agriculture is doing well, interest rates
have come down, while inflation has also come
down to its lowest since 1992,” Bawumia said.
Ghana is looking to the Bank for investment in an
integrated aluminium industry, using the country’s
large bauxite deposit as raw materials. The Bank
should also consider supporting Ghana to tackle
climate change in line with the Group’s crosscutting
interventions, the vice-president said.
The Executive Directors commended the country
for its newly constructed Terminal 3 facility at the
Kotoka International Airport, which was partly
financed by the Bank.
“We flew in through the airport and we are
pleased about what we saw,” said Okogu, who
is also the Dean of the Bank Group’s Executive
Directors.
Later Monday, the Bank delegation met with Bank
of Ghana Governor Ernest Addison, who briefed
them on the country’s assessment of the likely
impact of the coronavirus on Ghana’s economy.
The group also had a briefing by Finance Minister
Ken Ofori-Atta, a Governor of the African
Development Bank Group.
The Bank’s current portfolio in Ghana is
channelled through various projects aimed
at job creation, economic inclusiveness,
macroeconomic stability and industrialization.
Key financing for development to the country
includes mobilizing a seven-year $600 million
syndicated receivables-backed loan for Ghana
Cocoa Board to improve productivity and
domestic value addition; approval of the first
phase of the Easten Corridor Road Project
estimated at $102 million; and an urban transport
project entailing the construction of a three-tier
interchange.
The other members of the Bank Group
delegation are Kenyeh Barlay, Executive Director,
representing The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra
Leone and Sudan, Ahmed Zayed for Egypt and
Djibouti, and David Stevenson, representing
Canada, China, Korea, Turkey and Kuwait.
Director-General for West Africa, Marie-Laure
Akin-Olugbade and Acting Country Manager
Sebastian Okeke also travelled along.
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