Ghana secures 100m euros grant from Germany

Ghana is set to benefit from Germany’s ‘Compact with Africa’ Programme aimed at improving conditions for sustainable private sector investment.

In all three African country is being put on this agreement

The Germany’s ‘Compact facility would be channelled into infrastructure investments, economic participation, and employment creation in the country.

Ghana's finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta made these statements when he met the Ghanaian community resident in Germany.

According to the finance minister the Compact with Africa Programme, initially, the compact had Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, Tunisia, Morocco and Rwanda, being the countries signed onto it.

However, only three countries out of the five, were to be beneficiaries of €100 million that came along with signing the Compact.

Ghana was chosen to be one of the countries signed onto the Compact due to the president's works, he noted.

He explains that this development is sign of confidence for Ghana.

We thought that it was over. Then they (Germans) came back a couple of weeks later, in March 2017, and said that ‘we should put our money where our mouth is. So let us select three countries in Africa, where we can have a bilateral relationship with, and they selected two of the countries who were already in the Compact – Tunisia and Cote d’Ivoire – and they said Ghana be part of it, that is the third country.

The finance minister says although the new government inherited an unstable economy, his has put in place measures to fix and restore confidence into the country’s economy.

We inherited an economy with a budget deficit of 9 percent; a negative primary balance; GH¢10 billion in interest payments each year; high rates of inflation; and GH¢7 billion of “hidden” arrears, amongst others but we will fix it.

According to the Minister, this situation, led to the managers of the economy deciding to re-profile Ghana’s debt.

Re-profiling means that instead of these debts maturing every 90 days, let us find a way to increase the tenure of maturity so that instead of the 91 days and 5 years, we move it to 15 years. It gives us some breathing room to enable us do what we need to do to revive the economy, he added.

He reiterated his government's commitment to reducing Ghana's budget deficit from 9 percent to 6.5 percent; increase growth rates from 3.6 percent to 6.3 percent by the end of 2017.