Germany gives Ghana 34 million euros

Germany is the latest development partner to provide fresh development support for the country in the sum of about GH¢138.38 million (34 million euros) for the 2015-2017 medium-term.

This brings to GH¢301.58 (or 74.1 million euros) the total amount of development support Ghana’s long-standing development partner has committed for the period under review within its development cooperation agreement with Ghana.

The Finance Minister, Mr Seth Terkper, signed on behalf of Ghana in Accra on Thursday, with the German Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Ruediger John, signing on behalf of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Areas of cooperation

The support is within the common financial cooperation agreement between the two countries, a new round of which was concluded a few months ago. The broad areas of cooperation are agriculture, governance and sustainable economic development.

The two countries are also holding discussions to add renewable energy and electronic waste management to  their areas of cooperation.

Mr John explained that the new commitment comprised a nine-million euro loan for agricultural outgrower and value chain fund; a loan for 9.5 million euros towards a deposit protection scheme, while renewable energy and energy efficiency would benefit from a 15-million euro loan.

The ambassador lauded the Ghana-Germany ties, which he said had been deepened over the past 18 months with the reciprocal visits of President John Mahama to Germany and two German ministers to Ghana.

Finance minister responds

For his part, Mr Terkper commended Germany for its expanse assistance which covered both the public and private sectors as well as the civil society, adding that that country had traditionally offered support in real sectors and pertinent areas of the economy.

He said the outgrower scheme in particular was a good response to critical areas of the economy and a good response to the country’s farming and land tenure system, adding that agriculture was also an important area in the quest to diversify the economy.

On our transition to a middle-income country, we have been facing harder terms for borrowing as we no more get the long tenor loans but moved to the commercial loans where the conditions are tighter.

However, the German development bank, KfW, still lends on concessionary terms to the country and Mr Terkper said while that may be reviewed at a point, it was an important push for the country’s transition.

The finance minister appealed to the German authorities to also assist Ghana to establish its EXIM Bank and Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF), using some of its models which had worked for it, such as KfW.

Germany has already disbursed its 2015 budget support of 17.31 million euros, equivalent to GH¢70.45 million.