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Ghana records the highest number of African Development Bank’s loans and grants approvals

|  By Maureen Chigbo  |  Apr. 8, 2013 @ 01:00 GMT

GHANA recorded the highest number of projects approvals to be financed with loans and grants from the African Development bank, AfDB in 2012. The bank provided a total of $211.6 million in grants and loans to support Ghana’s development in the year under review. The total 2012 grants and loans approval amount represents the highest level of support the country has received from the bank within a one-year period since the Bank Group began operations in Ghana, in 1973. To date the bank group has financed 105 loans and grants in Ghana, valued at approximately $3.755 billion.

Projects funded by the Bank primarily fall within the areas of transport, energy, agriculture, water and sanitation, education, health and multi-sector. The board of directors of AfDB made a record by approving four projects in 2012 for the country. The projects are aimed at assisting Ghana to achieve its development objectives as outlined in the country’s Shared Growth and Development Agenda.

The projects include the $76.5 million in financing approved for the rural enterprises Programme III (REP III), designed to assist the government to scale up the impact and outcome of REP I and II, in response to Ghana’s Shared Growth and Development Agenda. The GSGDA focused on inclusive growth, youth employment, and women’s economic empowerment.

REP III is part of the government’s efforts to reduce poverty and improve living conditions in rural areas by promoting the infrastructure, technologies, and skills needed for private sector development. It will be implemented in 161 of the country’s 170 rural districts and is expected to create 100,000 new jobs among other benefits.

The Ghana Institutional Support Programme, GISP, which received $14.5 million in bank funding, aims to enhance the capacity of selected institutions in both the private and public sector. In particular, the programme will strengthen the non-tax revenue mobilisation framework, enhance the capacity of the Private Enterprise Foundation, National Board of Small Scale Industries and the Ghana Stock Exchange to support small and medium enterprises and enhance capacity in financial sector policy formulation. The Development of Skills for Industry Project, DISP, and the TICO Phase II, which attracted $120 million and $60,000, respectively, will support quality intermediate level, technical and vocational training skills needed to foster increased productivity and consequently, economic growth to reduce poverty in Ghana.

In addition, the support to TICO, a power company operating in the western region, will finance the expansion of the Takoradi Thermal Power Plant, TTPP. The funding will enable TICO to expand its existing T2 Unit, currently at 220 MW to its final capacity of 330 MW, through the addition of a steam turbine to convert it to combined-cycle operation.

These approved projects are aligned to the bank’s new country strategy paper, CSP, which was approved in June 2012. The CSP forms the basis for the African Development Bank Group’s operations in Ghana for the period 2012-2016 and it is based on two pillars: improving productivity in Ghanaian enterprises, and supporting economic and structural reforms aimed at improving the business environment.

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