Ghana Government, Development Partners meet on Funding for SADA
The Government of Ghana, through the Ministry of Finance will on Monday November 21st hold a National Conference with its development partners to review the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) strategy and also explore mechanisms to raise both short and long-term funding for the authority.
According to a statement issued on November 18, 2011, the conference is expected to agree on the next steps for joint action in targeting development programmes and resources for the deprived areas of the Savannah zone and others meriting priority treatment.
It said this is in furtherance of plans set out in the 2012 budget announced by the Minister of Finance, Dr. Kwabena Duffour on Wednesday November 16th to resource the authority and further boost its full implementation.
The one-day conference is expected to discuss SADA’s agenda and priorities for accelerated growth in the Northern Savannah; private sector as a vehicle for transformation in the SADA zone, communication impacts and development results, as well as government’s long term priorities in accelerating growth in SADA and other deprived areas.
It will be jointly hosted by Vice-President John Mahama and the Minister of Finance and attended by all five Regional Ministers of the regions covered by SADA; Upper East, Upper West, Northern, Brong-Ahafo and Volta regions and their respective Regional Economic Planning Officers.
According to the statement, Mr. John Mahama through his keynote address, map out the policy priorities that have inspired the bold policy of SADA and its institutional set-up, while other discussions on the SADA priorities will be led by the SADA CEO, Alhaji Seidu Iddi and perspectives on private sector funding shared by the Chairman of SADA, Mr. Andani Alhassan.
On his part, the Dr. Kwabena Duffour is expected to present an elaborate mechanism for the long-term funding of SADA, followed by responses from various donor agencies.
The Finance Minister will also lead a dialogue with Development Partners on the proposed Investment Funding mechanism for SADA and engage them in discussing current and future pipe-line programmes and funding to enhance Government’s accelerated development programme for the SADA areas.
Other Ministries expected to attend the conference are the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ministry of Trade and Industries as well as the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) and the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
About 30 Donor Agencies and Foreign Missions are expected to be represented at the highest levels.
By Edmund Smith-Asante