Deputy GSE boss lauds establishment of a development bank in Ghana

She said the Ghana Development Bank, if set up, will attract a lot of investment opportunities for the country.

Speaking as part of a development finance series at the research and consultancy Centre of the University of Professional Studies, she noted that the Development Bank Ghana is set up to attract very cheap capital which should boost Ghana’s economic growth through agriculture and manufacturing.

Despite being described as the bedrock of Ghana’s economic development, the agriculture and manufacturing sectors receive just 4 and 8 percent respectively of investment.

The situation results from the lack of capital due to the short term nature of investment funding available.

In a bid to find a solution to the foregoing problem, the Government of Ghana in partnership with the European Investment Bank, and other international development institutions have committed to the establishment of a new development finance institution in Ghana to provide patient capital for Ghana’s industrialisation agenda.

Ghana's Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta. Pulse Ghana

On the essence of a development bank, Dr Emmanuel Debrah, a finance Lecturer at UPSA, all development banks have collapsed due to poor corporate governance.

“When I heard of the Development Bank, what came to mind was all the development banks Nkrumah built. All of them are no more. The question is what have we learnt from there to guide the sustainability of the yet to be operational Development Bank, Ghana… Research has shown that all development banks in the past collapsed due to poor corporate governance,” Dr. Debrah noted.

The Ministry of Finance has signed an agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB) for €170 million for the establishment of Development Bank Ghana (DBG).

The signing became possible after a meeting between President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the President of the EIB, Dr Werner Hoyer, during the former’s official visit to Belgium.

The DBG is an integral feature of the GH¢100-billion Ghana Cares ‘Obaatampa’ project.