Ghana-US Partnership identifies two constraints to economic growth

The Ghana and the United States Partnership for Growth initiative, have identified unreliable and inadequate supply of electric power and access to affordable credit as binding constraints to Ghana’s private sector development and economic growth.

In the quest to address these constraints, a five-year joint Country Action Plan (JCAP),has been developed consisting of two components- the JCAP Power component and JCAP Access to credit component.

The objective of the plan is to strengthen the power sector and increase access to credit, especially for the small and medium sectors.

Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance speaking at the 8th meeting of the Partnership for Growth Joint steering committee, said Ghana was one of the four countries in the developing world that had entered into the partnership with the United States.

The partnership seeks to replace the traditional donor-recipient model of international development assistance with a partnership based on mutually-agreed actions and commitments.

It is to accelerate and sustain broad based economic growth through engagement with governments, the private sector and civil society.

He said since 2013, tremendous efforts had been collectively made in implementing the activities outlined under the action plan and appreciable level of success had, so far, been chalked out on both fronts.

He said the achievements had been made possible due to the shared commitment of members of the joint steering committee and the two technical working committees.

He expressed the hope that the World Bank being the new entrant to the partnership, already supporting the power and financial sectors in some capacity, could provide additional support to these sectors.

“We are very hopeful that your participation in the initiative will engender additional synergy which will go a long way in helping address the lingering challenges in the two sectors and also unlock the growth potential of the country’s economy,” he added.

He expressed the hope that the partnership in its final year and expected to end in March 2018 would make stakeholders continue to discharge their operational responsibilities and where required to step up efforts to ensure that the desired goals were achieved.

Mr Robert Jackson, the US Ambassador, said the US would continue to collaborate with their Ghanaian counterpart to address the challenges in these two sectors.

He encouraged government to put policies, law and regulations in place to make doing business in the country conducive, which would enable investors invest in the economy.

“Ghana needs to effectively enforce its laws and regulations, since implementation of these regulations brings effectiveness into the system,” he added.