AFDB to commit more resources to Ghana

Business Page (Lead) Feb 9/2008

Story: Charles Benoni Okine

THE African Development Bank (AfDB) is to invest $9 billion to improve the country’s infrastructure over the next three years beginning this year until 2010.
The move is intended, among others, to help accelerate the growth of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which will also propel it to attain its vision of becoming a middle-income country by 2015.
The Resident Representative, Ghana Country Office of the bank, Mr Alieu Jeng, who dropped the hint when he paid a courtesy call on the Managing Director of the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), Mr Ibrahim Awal, in Accra said; “We have realised that Ghana has a strong potential to grow its GDP beyond its present levels and that can be done if it is able to develop its infrastructure in the areas of roads and railways, among others”.
Ghana’s GDP has been growing at a constant average of five per cent per annum over the last six years but many economists have argued that this was not enough to help the country attain its vision of becoming a middle-income country by 2015.
It is estimated that the GDP should grow between eight and 10 per cent per annum while that of per capita income should grow from $400 to $1,000.
It has also been argued that the country’s investment in infrastructure, particularly roads and railways, was not enough to march the potential growth of the country.
That, Mr Jeng said was the reason the bank was committing that amount to enable Ghana to grow at the levels it deserved.
“The bank is still looking at other sectors such as agriculture and health but new approvals would be in the area of infrastructure”, he said.
He said the bank put in $45 million to support the support the country move out of its energy crisis and noted that “the bank was looking more to partnerships with the private sector to go into the energy sector”.
Mr Jeng also indicated that $60 million had been approved under a programme dubbed the ‘Northern Rural Growth Project” where areas such as food crop cultivation, irrigation projects, rural roads and major roads which link the farmlands would be improved.
He said there were many projects that the bank had undertaken and more was still being done.
Mr Jeng, who was accompanied by Mr Peter Assem, Finance and Administrative Assistant of the Ghana Country Office of the bank, said the bank had committed several billions of dollars to different projects in the country and was committed to doing more.
He commended the management and staff of the GCGL for its performance and for being the leading producers of all the major newspapers in the country.
Mr Jeng pledged greater collaboration between the bank in Ghana and the company as they both strive to improve the lives of the people of the country and in Africa as a whole.
Mr Awal, for his part, said the company’s seven newspapers were the leaders in their respective areas on the market.
He said the company was committed to growth and was exploring all areas to ensure that it continued to stay on top as the company with the best to offer Ghanaians.