Germany to support Ghana’s economy with £130m in next three years
The German government is pumping £130 million in bilateral commitments to the Ghanaian economy over the next three years.
With the arrangement, Ghana is expected to receive £43 million per year from 2012 to 2014 in support of private and financial sector development, decentralisation and agriculture.
The funding would also be used to cater for budgetary support, good financial governance and the provision of renewable energy.
While £55 million would go into budgetary support and good financial governance, £26.5 million is for private sector development; £24.6 million for decentralisation; £12.5 million for renewable energies; £9.4 million for agriculture and £200,000 for other areas.
The Country Director of the GIZ, Mr Siegfried Leffler, announced the package at a German Trained Returned Entrepreneurship Training Seminar at Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.
The German-Trained returned experts programme gives participants the opportunity to bring out their entrepreneurship skills to enable them to create jobs instead of searching for some.
Organised by the Centre for International Migration and Development (CIM) with the support of the GIZ and the German Federal Employment Agency, the programme ensures that Ghanaians who had their professional training in Germany are empowered to set up businesses in the country.
As part of the programme, some of the students who decided to set up their own businesses after the period also received start-up capital from the programme.
Those who return home with the sole aim of setting up business, receive start-up capital of about 10,000 Euros.
Upon completion of their studies, either through scholarship or personal investments, students can apply to the programme which provides their transportation back home and offers them job placements in agriculture, decentralisation, good financial governance and economic cooperation.
Students on job placements are given salary top ups by the programme for two years.
Aside this, their host companies or institutions receive equipment from the programme and upon completion of the students’ work, such equipment becomes the property of the institution.
CIM has been supporting Ghanaians professionals with financial support programmes since 1994.
Mr Leffler said the objective of the support was to provide additional and budget resources to enable the country implement its Shared Growth and Development Strategy, aimed mainly at reducing poverty and reaching the Millennium Development Goals.
According to him, decentralisation was essential to Ghana’s democratisation process as well as its economic and social development.
In that regard, he said over the years, the German government had been supporting the country in its efforts to strengthen local government structures.
“The objective is to improve delivery of basic services with a view to achieving a higher degree of satisfaction among the populace, to contribute to transparency and to strengthen political participation in the decision making process at the local level.”
To the participants, he said, “Ghana is now at the cross-roads of its development and in the process it will need the contributions of returned experts such as you for this process to continue effectively.”
“The country belongs to you, and can only be developed or changed by you, as you are the bridge builders between your country and Germany. Your experiences in Germany and the world and your expertise are vital to the development of the country,” he stated.
Mr Leffler, therefore, urged the participants to implement the know–how they acquired in Germany in Ghana.
“The potential for development in Ghana is immense and it will need initiatives from you to push the agenda forward,” he stated.
Source: Daily Graphic