Ghana, EU sign 7.24 million euro financing agreement for banana export

Ghana and the European Union on Wednesday signed financing agreement of 7.24 million Euros to support the competitiveness of the country’s banana export sector.

Mr Seth Tekper, Minister of Finance, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, Minister of Trade and Industry and Mr Claude Maeerten, Ambassador and Head of the EU Delegation signed the Agreement in Accra.

The fund made available under the Banana Accompanying Measures (BAM) aimed to improve the competitiveness of the export banana industry in the face of the tariff preference erosion in the EU market to ensure its environmental and socio-economic sustainability in the long run.

The BAM project has been designed to serve as a social housing component to provide 300 housing units for banana workers, including access to basic commodities and services to improve living conditions.

It also intend to support the improvement of the value chain by enabling the production of high quality organic compost, in particular based on the use of lake weeds from the Volta shore.

The project which is scheduled for three years would be implemented by the Ministry of Trade and Industry in coordination with the Ministry of Finance and the banana companies- Golden Exotics and Volta River Estates as well the district assemblies, workers union and other stakeholders.

Source: GNA