World Bank supports Ghana with a facility worth $40 million.
The World Bank has approved a facility worth $40 million to support Ghana.
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A Project Appraisal Document published by the bank said that, the a collective contributive factor to the sector’s low competitiveness is due to its assets and potential demand, the near absence of public sector strategic intervention and lack of resources.
The bank said its project called ‘The Project Development Objective (PDO)’ is to improve the performance of tourism in targeted destinations in Ghana.
The project will trigger economic transformation through jobs, local enterprise and investment, all of which depend on how many tourists visit, how much time they spend in the country, how much they spend and what they do in the destination.
The facility is the first which the World Bank has initiated to the tourism, arts and culture sector in the history of Ghana’s relations with the Bretton Wood institution and its (the facility) ultimate purpose is to encourage an increase in foreign exchange earnings related to an increase in the volume of international tourist arrivals and
It (the facility) has been structured to enable the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, in collaboration with the relevant ministries and agencies, to initiate long overdue changes in such sectors as Aviation and Immigration, whose activities have a direct bearing on the fortunes of the tourism industry.
The project has four main components, namely strengthening tourism enabling environment ($15 million), developing tourism sites and destinations ($15 million), tourism enterprise support program ($5.0 million) and project management ($5.0 million).
The Ministry has therefore estimated that at least, 2,500 people will be needed to be trained annually to fill the gap of 10,500 receptionists, housekeeping and restaurant staff required to cope with the demand growth.
In addition, the ministry projected that, as these number of people are given the opportunity to develop their skills, the most disadvantaged workers can move beyond insecurity into more stable, higher-paid employment.
They then said that the programme will also target small and medium scale entrepreneurs the country.