US to grant Ghana 6.7 million dollars additional assistance

The US and Ghana will on Friday sign two new agreements and an amendment for a total of 6.7 million dollars in additional assistance to Ghana.

A United States Agency for International Development (USAID) statement issued in Accra on Thursday said the agreements would address needs in the vital areas of public health and private sector growth.

The statement said the 6.7 million dollars is in addition to the 52 million dollars in funding already provided through USAID by agreements signed earlier this year.

It said the first of the new bilateral agreements would provide 5.7 million dollars in debt relief for Ghana and directed at the country's multi-donor health account to pay for vitally needed health commodities.

The second agreement will provide 500,000 dollars to fund technical assistance in the form of specialized energy sector development expertise to help Ghana maximise the benefit from its participation in the trans-national West Africa Gas Pipeline project.

The statement said the amendment would provide additional 500,000 dollars under the Increased Private Sector Growth Strategic Objective Agreement.

"These resources will fund a special effort to make available to farmers large quantities of affordable, improved quality planting material for selected cash and food crops through expanded commercial plant tissue culture production, marketing and distribution".