Ken Ofori-Atta, Finance Minister
In a bid to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs), the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has called on businesses and institutions to support the financing of the SDGs through partnership with government.
Speaking at the Sustainable Development Fair, dubbed; “Sustainable Development Financing: Building Mutually Beneficial Partnerships”, in Accra, Mr. Ofori-Atta said “both local and foreign businesses and financial institutions need to support the financing of the SDGs by directly partnering with government.”
He noted that this can be done by injecting funds into private sector projects and businesses that have the potential to bring Shared Value; and by leading in the discussions to tackle the challenges with the global financial architecture, which disadvantages the countries in the southern hemisphere.
Currently, governments across the world are partnering with the private sector to close the SDGs financing gap, which is estimated at US$ 2.5 to US$ 3 trillion per year.
According to the 2019 Global Wealth Report by Credit Suisse, global wealth grew during the past year by 2.6 percent to US$ 360 trillion.
In view of this, the Finance Minister said, “this is one of the main reasons for the recent focus on private capital for sustainable development. This is proof that the global private sector has the capacity to help governments finance the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.”
“However, private actors are (in their defence) looking for economic models that enable them to still realize significant returns whilst doing so. In our bid to find this middle ground, it is important for us to be guided by the concept of Shared Value. This is when economic value is created in a way that also creates value for society by addressing its needs and challenges thereby resulting in a win for the private sector and a win for the Society in line with the World Bank’s twin objectives of eliminating poverty and Shared Prosperity,” the Finance Minister stated.
Although, philanthropy is always welcome, in order to realize the Global Goals, Mr. Ofori-Atta stated that there is the need to target the US$ 360 trillion in available investment financing in addition to the combined assets of the philanthropic foundations which are estimated at US$ 1.5 trillion by the World Economic Forum.
