The United States (US) government has pledged to support Ghana to overcome its current fiscal challenges.
The United States Secretary of Commerce, Ms Penny Pritzker, who made the promise on Monday, said the US appreciated the efforts the Ghana government was making to use home-grown methods to address the fiscal challenges and pointed out that the US would offer the necessary support.
She said this when she led a high-level trade delegation comprising representatives of 20 companies in the United States to pay a courtesy call on President John Dramani Mahama at the Flagstaff House.
The delegation is in the country to seek investment opportunities, especially in the energy sector, and explore other areas of collaborations with their Ghanaian counterparts.
Ms Pritzker said the collaboration between the US and Ghana was all-embracing and the Obama administration was keen on helping Ghana move out of the financial challenges. Trade ties
The secretary said trade between the US and Ghana had reached appreciable levels.
Currently, the US exports to Ghana stand at about $ 1 billion, while that of Ghana to the US is about $366 million.
She said opportunities existed for improvement, and expressed the hope that the visit of the business delegation would facilitate the realisation of that objective.
Ms Pritzker extended an invitation from President Obama to Mr Mahama to attend the first US-Africa meeting in August this year. General Electric (GE)
The secretary expressed delight about the decision by a US company, GE, to establish a 1000-megawatt power-generation plant in Ghana.
She said the project would play an important role in President Obama’s Power Africa Project, which seeks to invest $1.2 billion in power generation in Africa.
The US government, she added, recognised the strong leadership credentials of Mr Mahama both at home and in the ECOWAS and assured him of the Obama administration’s support.
Strong bond
Responding, Mr Mahama said the coming to the country of the delegation was a testimony of the strong bond of relationship between the two countries.
He said Ghana was undertaking reforms in the energy sector to help improve energy production.
He said the expected signing of the second compact of the Millennium Challenge Account would go a long way to push the energy agenda of the country to another level.
He also said the country would count on the US in exploring renewable energy generation.
The President said the local content initiative was not a one-sided matter for the country but a win-win affair for oil-producing companies.
He also welcomed the GE initiative and said “the memorandum of understanding has been initialled and we are looking forward to rolling out the project.”
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