The Finance Ministry, Friday signed four agreements worth $570 million dollars.
The deal signed by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta and Pierre Laporte on behalf of Ghana and the World Bank is aimed at transferring the economy, boosting education, improve sanitation and fight flooding in Accra as well as reduce forest losses.
$557 million out of the four agreements is in loans and over $12 million in grants.
The deal is to support The Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development project, The Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project, Ghana Economic Transformation Project, and Ghana Forest Investment Programme.
The Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development project is a $200 million, multi-sector and transformative urban project which aims to support Greater Accra to become a cleaner, safer and more resilient city.
It focuses on reducing flood risk along the Odaw urban river basin and three selected low-income communities: Nima, Alogboshie, and Akweteman.
The Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project is $150 million for 6 years, which has the development objective to improve the quality of education in low performing basic education schools and strengthen education sector equity and accountability in Ghana.
The objective of the $200 million Ghana Economic Transformation Project is to promote private investments and firm the growth in non-resource-based sectors of the Ghanaian economy. The project will work towards improving the business environment to facilitate firm growth and investments.
The final project is the Additional Financing for the Ghana Forest Investment Programme which is a $12.4 million grant and $7 million loan project. It seeks to reduce forest loss and degradation in selected landscapes in Ghana’s High Forest Zone, where deforestation is at the highest.
Mr. Ofori-Atta in his address commended the World Bank for its support, saying the projects would help to advance government’s quest for inclusiveness and transformation.
According to him, the Akufo-Addo government’s goal, upon assuming office, has always been to accelerate the pace of development and ensuring that no one was left behind.
He said government has proven to Ghanaians its desire of inclusiveness through flagship programs such as the one district one factory and the free SHS program.
On his part, Mr. Laporte said the event also affirmed the Bank’s commitment to supporting the government and Ghanaians through the signing of the legal Agreements of the four important and potentially transformative projects.
“We will work with you hand in hand to ensure that these projects, as well as others already ongoing, are implemented timely and effectively. This will, in turn, result in efficient use of resources, achieve the projects’ objectives, and most importantly positively impact the lives of the people, communities and institutions,” he added.
He said the project delays were costly, and encouraged the terms to identify implementation challenges and work collaboratively with other government organisations as well as with the Bank teams to resolve them.
“One important aspect of the implementation process is feedback from beneficiaries. Implementing entities thus need to ensure there are functional grievance redress mechanisms and strong citizens engagement for all projects as they contribute to effective, efficient and sustainable delivery and outcomes,” Mr. Laporte.
