African Dev’t Bank approves $108m financing for Ghana’s industrial skills development project

The African Development Bank Group’s Board on Wednesday June 20, 2012 approved a loan and a grant totaling $108 million to finance the Development of Skills for Industry Project (DSIP) in Ghana.

The grant component of the DSIP financing amounts to $38.5 million.

In a statement on June 21, 2012, the Tunis-based lender said it considers the project to be “an operation of the highest priority” in both the public and private sectors of Ghana’s economy.

Bocary Savadogo, a division manager at the Bank’s human development department, said the project is designed to improve equitable access to quality and relevant technical, vocational education and training so as to enhance intermediate level technical and vocational skills particularly needed to foster productivity, balanced economic growth, poverty reduction and overall economic development.

The Bank expects the project execution to start by December 2012. It will be completed in June 2017. The executing agency is Ghana’s Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET), according to the project’s appraisal report.

By Ekow Quandzie