SADA to establish Area Development Bank

Plans are ongoing to establish a SADA Area Development Bank, as well as the development of a comprehensive master plan for its operational regions.

Mr. Charles Abugre, SADA’s Chief Executive Officer, announced this at a stakeholder coordinating committee meeting in Wa.

In attendance were traditional authorities, regional ministers, members of parliament, metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives, civil society and non-governmental organisations drawn from SADA’s operational zone to update them on SADA's activities, key issues and its new ways of working.

He said it would help SADA to effectively address the three strategic objectives of mobilising human, financial and other resources for the implementation of the accelerated development strategy.

He said SADA was stimulating and promoting investments and business development to diversify the economy and jobs in its operational areas.

It has also renewed its commitment with the youth and stakeholders of the zone towards the repositioning of operations and raising greater awareness of its work.

Mr. Abugre said USAID Fingap had supported SADA area districts to develop their profiles targeting investment promotion, and that those documents had now become useful for the districts in their engagement with investors.

He said SADA in partnership with Unik Savannah, a private sector company specialised in the assembling of tri-cycle, would establish a plant in Tamale while credit arrangement had been concluded with a Chinese state institution to ship component parts of the tri-cycle to Ghana.

This project would be launched in July and would go into full production in October, with the objective to produce most of its component parts locally

Mr. Abugre announced that as part of the project, an exchange programme had been included for knowledge transfer between Chinese and Ghanaian engineers and artisans would be sourced locally.

Apart from the tri-cycles, the plant would also produce motor scooters and three-wheeler rural ambulances.

The CEO said SADA had also gone into a joint partnership with a Ghanaian company to raise capital for the purchase of heavy-duty construction machinery from German manufacturer Liebherr to equip the Mole Machinery Plant Pool Project.

He said SADA had 40 per cent shares while the remaining 60 percent majority shares belonged to the German company, explaining that the unique engagement of the two partners would create favourable conditions for people in the construction industry based in the north to benefit from available machinery, as well as train manpower to compete favorably against other firms both internationally and locally.

He said the project would also introduce systematic vocational training for operators and mechanics for heavy-duty construction machinery in Northern Ghana.

SADA was also in the process of positioning the Northern Savannah Ecological Zone as a commercial hub for the Sahelian Countries with the development of an inland port at Buipe, he added.

Mr. Abugre said SADA was collaborating with DCH Solargiga of Germany to establish a 40 MW Solar Energy Plant in Gushie near Tamale in the Northern Region.

Alhaji Amidu Sulemana, Upper West Region Minister, in his welcoming address, said the SADA zone had Ghana’s agriculture, renewable and sustainable energy resources, as well as manufacturing prospects and potentials.

He, therefore, entreated all stakeholders, especially traditional institutions to engage SADA more and play their roles appropriately regarding the provision of land for SADA development projects.