$
GOVERNMENT
HAS secured a $200 million facility from the World Bank to help transform and
diversify the economy through the promotion of private investment in the real
sectors.
The facility,
which is aimed at implementing an integrated programme, will help boost the
country’s competitiveness and deliver sustainable jobs under the Ghana Economic
Transformation Project (GETP).
The $200
million funded projects from the International Development Association (IDA)
were approved by the World Bank Board of Executive Directors on July 2, 2019.
The GETP
will support improvements in the business environment and build capacity for
investment attraction and retention as well as spatial development such as
Special Economic Zones (SEZs) to address constraints to access industrial land.
The project
will also support entrepreneurship and SME growth by strengthening the
entrepreneurship support ecosystem, and it will include early-stage financing
for growth-oriented entrepreneurs.
Pierre
Laporte, World Bank Country Director for Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, said:
“This operation directly aligns with government’s strategy and with the World
Bank’s Africa regional strategy, which lays out economic transformation as a
mechanism to create sustainable and inclusive growth.”
The GETP
will support government’s strategy of transforming the Ghanaian economy to
achieve inclusive and sustainable growth, with the private sector as the main
driver to build the most business-friendly economy in Africa and foster the
competitiveness of Ghanaian firms.
“This
project applies the World Bank Group Maximizing Finance for Development
approach, maximizing the Government of Ghana’s resources and will help ensure
that IDA funding leverages and attracts complementary private financing,” said
Douglas Pearce, Practice Manager Finance Competitiveness and Innovation Global
Practice.
The
interventions under the project are complementary to the initiatives of other
development partners focusing on the investment climate, skills development,
industrial parks, access to finance, agricultural value chains and climate
innovation. The interventions under this project will contribute to the World
Bank Group’s twin goals by supporting opportunities for business growth and job
creation in non-resource-based sectors.
“This is an ambitious private sector project and requires a high level of coordination and ownership to ensure a successful implementation,” Errol Graham, Programme Leader EFI, said.
– Citifmonline
