Government to support SADA in financing vehicle

The Deputy Minister of Finance, Mona Quartey has assured Ghanaians of Government's commitment in expending resources to ensure that the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) becomes a symbol of socio-economic transformation of the Northern Savannah Ecological Zone (NSEZ).

She said the ministry of finance will support SADA in the effort to find a financing vehicle that addresses the long-term financing needs within its zone.

The Minister said this at a round-table discussion on the establishment of a financing vehicle for the Northern Savannah Ecological Zone in Accra.

According to the minister, government has been concerned with improving the life of every Ghanaian; thus, by spreading the growth in the south to other parts of the country and ensuring equity in the distribution of resources.

“It is this reason that the situation in the northern savannah zone deserves continuous focus of government economic policies," she added.

Mona Quartey said the concept in relation to a long-term financing vehicle will bring transformative development to the northern savannah ecological zone.

Consistently, Ghana's infrastructure gap is about USD 2.5 billion, therefore government alone cannot foot this bill, likewise any single private investor may not want to commit exclusively to such a huge venture.

She stated that statistics indicate that between 1992 and 2006, the number of the poor declined by 2.5 million in the south and increased by 0.9 million in the NSEZ. In addition, poverty in the north had led to chronic food insecurity resulting in vulnerable livelihoods of the people in some parts of the NSEZ.

She said the people in the NSEZ are more prone to underweight, malnutrition and stunted growth and have limited access to basic social service such as safe water, accessible roads and electricity and telephone services.

“We [are] therefore keen at the ministry to support development of finance institutions that focus on providing financial service to the less endowed and unprivileged," She assures.

On his part, the Chief Executive Officer of SADA, Charles Abugre, said the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) is set to establish a Bank by end of next year towards creating an institutional vehicle to accelerate growth in the savanna zone.

He said a seed capital of about $100 million has been projected to kick start the bank, inasmuch as the authority is setting the institution up as an independent financial body with little state influence.

Mr. Charles indicated that the peculiar challenges of the north needs a financial body with a long-term agenda to help transform its fortunes.

He said the Northern Savannah Zone is also exceedingly fortunate in the sense that it is an excitedly wealthy part of West Africa.

It has therefore proposed a 20 percent government and 80 percent private equity. The major funding partners will be development financial bodies including the World Bank, African Development Bank, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development, the International Fund for Agriculture and Development among others.

Private partners being sought after include the pension’s fund, private commercial banks and academic practitioners.