Japan supports Ghana with US$16.5m grant (August 15, 2009)

Story: Michael Donkor
THE Japanese government has made available a grant of $16.5 million to support the government’s development projects.
Six million dollars of the grant is to be used to support basic education in deprived areas while the remaining will be used to open a lending facility on very soft terms for small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) to import production equipment, individual goods and raw materials.
Consequently, a memorandum of understanding to that effect has been signed by the two governments.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, signed on behalf of Ghana, while the Japanese Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Keiichi Katakami, signed on behalf of his government.
In a brief statement after signing the document, Mr Katakami noted that private sector development was one of the key challenging issues facing Ghana’s social and economic development.
He said though there had been progress on improving the business environment for the private sector in the country, the difficulties still remained for the SMEs to acquire the necessary inputs for their growth and competitiveness.
It was in view of this, he said, that the Japanese government had decided to channel more resources to support the government.
Mr Katakami expressed the hope that the grant would contribute to the strengthening of industrial development from the grass-roots level in the country.
He said the grant to support the rural educational sector would be used to provide classroom buildings, teachers’ accommodation, toilet facilities and furniture in 21 schools in the Northern Region and 16 schools in the Central Region.
Alhaji Mumuni thanked the Japanese government for the support and gave the assurance that the money would be used for its intended purpose.
He said the gesture was a demonstration of the Government of Japan’s commitment to partner Ghana to make the private sector the engine of growth of the economy.
The minister indicated that the machinery, equipment and other materials to be purchased under this facility would be procured on hire purchase basis upon request from the SMEs and all re-imbursements made would be deposited into an account with the Bank of Ghana.