Ghana, others to benefit from UK's $15bn pledge

Accra, May 26, GNA - Ghana is among some 20 African states to benefit from a 15 billion-dollar support from the United Kingdom towards the improvement of basic education over the next 10 years. Ghana could benefit from between 300 and 500 million dollars, Mr. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning told the Ghana News Agency in Accra on arrival from Abuja, Nigeria where he attended a two-day conference of African Finance and Education Ministers as well as other stakeholders.

He said the money would also be used to improve the salaries of teachers and their training programmes.

Mr Baah-Wiredu said the pledge was opportune as it offered Ghana a boost to raise the level of basic education in the country. He said the conference was working at creating an avenue for discussion with the 20 African countries during the forthcoming Spring Meetings of the World Bank in Washington D.C.

Mr Baah-Wiredu said Ghana was ready for the funds as the country had virtually satisfied all the requirements for the support. To qualify, a country must have a 10-year education plan in place, white paper on educational restructuring at the basic level, a Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy document and a budget that addresses the needs of children at the basic education level. "We have all these things in place; all we need to do is place these things in perspective and make our presentation," Mr Baah-Wiredu said.

He explained that Ghana showed to the conference progress made so far, including the capitation grant, school feeding programme, school infrastructure and the free buss rides for school children, "which fascinated the conference most."

Mr Baah-Wiredu said Ghana was no longer in the planning mode, but in the implementation mode and he saw no reason why the country could not benefit from the pledge.

The Finance Minister said he had spoken to the Minister of Education, Science and Sports on the issue and Ghana was set to make her case heard.

He said the Conference recognized the macro-economic challenges of effectively managing the large resource inflows from commitments. "Achieving the MDGs will require more effective fiscal and monetary policies, including stronger linkages between national plans and the budgets," they said. The Ministers expressed disappointment with the slow progress of the Doha Trade Negotiations and called on the WTO to intensify negotiations with a view to concluding an ambitious deal in this round. Mr Baah-Wiredu said Mr Gordon Brown, Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, argued that Africa must be empowered to realize her full potential to make her people's talents to impact on their society. The meeting on the theme: "Financing for Development: From Commitment to Action in Africa", was organized by the African Development Bank Group, the Economic Commission for Africa and the Government of Nigeria. Renowned economist Professor Jeffrey Sachs told the Ministers to forget IMF-imposed spending controls and work on more ambitious plans that would deliver the targets which include halving poverty and cutting child mortality by two-thirds. "The days when the IMF said: 'Freeze public sector spending' are over," Sachs told the conference. 26 May 06