Accra, Nov. 21, GNA - Vice President John Dramani Mahama on Monday outlined some of the projects to be executed under the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA).
He said government had earmarked $350 million for the Volta River Authority to establish a hydro energy power at Pwalugu in the Upper East Region to irrigate 150,000 hectares of land for tomato and rice cultivation and to harness the fishing potential of the area.
Vice President Mahama who announced this during a day’s stakeholders’ conference in Accra said the Tamale Airport would also be upgraded to international standards to attract investors.
The SADA programme was established in 2010 by Act 805 to help bridge the yawning development gap between the Northern and Southern Sectors of the country through the creation of jobs to discourage the migration of the youth from the impoverished North for non-existent jobs.
The beneficiary regions are Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions and parts of Brong Ahafo and Volta Regions,
The conference, was attended by Ghana’s development partners including, European Union, Canadian International Development Agency, Agencie Francais, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), World Food Programme (WFP) and Department for International Development (DFID).
Vice President Mahama said under the programme, one rice mills plant and a cement factory have been completed while two rice mills are still on the drawing board to be constructed within the next three years.
He said a sheanut factory constructed at Buipe is now operational, while a groundnut processing factory would be established to boost groundnut production and processing.
He said the fact that both the National Democratic Congress and New Patriotic Party have drawn up comprehensive programmes in their party manifestoes to cater for the North, was a demonstration that the area is deprived and therefore needed support.
He appealed to the private sector to take advantage of the SADA programme to invest in the sectors of their choice.
Dr Kwabena Duffour, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning said government is expected to generate GH? 200 million as seed money, which some of the development partners had expressed interest to support.
He said in the interim government had committed GH?30million as operational funds until the investment funds are ready.
Dr Duffour announced that China had provided $1.6 million as its commitment towards the SADA project, while UNDP, WFP, DFID had also committed technical financial support.
The development partners at the end of the conference expressed their support for the programme, but called for another avenue to discuss the issues in details to determine their areas of interest.
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