$21.74m For Fish Production

PARLIAMENT HAS approved a concessionary credit line of $21.74 million between the Government of Ghana and the Export &Import Bank of India to improve fish harvesting and processing and the acquisition of waste management equipment.

A report, which was jointly signed by James Klutse Avedzi, Chairman of the Finance Committee of Parliament and Peace Fiwoyife, Clerk of the committee on December 3, 2009, stated that the Ministry of Food & Agriculture would implement the project by providing waste management support to Metropolitan and Municipal Assemblies (MMAs) under the auspices of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.

The report revealed that interest on the facility was pegged at 1.75 percent and the amount is to be paid over 15-year period, with a grace period of 5 years.

The grant element of the facility stands at 40.53 percent and carries a commitment fee of 0.50 percent per annum on the unutilised amount.

Government policy requires District assemblies to take care of at least 20 percent of waste collection and disposal while the private sector is expected to manage the remaining 80 percent.

Additionally, district assemblies are required to have some equipment to deal with the 20 percent requirement to stand in a good position when the private sector is unable to perform.

The last time waste management equipment was acquired for district assemblies was in 1996 and most of these are currently in bad conditions.

There are currently 40 metropolises and municipalities facing huge sanitation problems, with many of them without private sector involvement in their waste management.

These account for the inability of the metropolitan and municipal assemblies to effectively handle the sanitation problem in the country.

In March 2004, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed at the techno-economic approach for Africa-India Movement (Team 9) ministerial meeting in New Delhi, India.

The Indian Government, under the terms of the MoU, provided $500 million credit on concessional terms to eight West African countries, including Ghana.

The facility is expected to finance projects that would impact positively on national development, poverty alleviation, food security, infrastructure and regional integration.

The Government of Ghana, in pursuit of the MoU, submitted a request for financial assistance totalling $728 million to the Indian Government.

It was due to the request that the Indian Government offered $21.74 million through the Exim Bank of India.

Of the amount, $11 million would be used to finance fish harvesting and fish processing projects while the remaining $10.72 million would be used for the acquisition of waste management equipment.

By Samuel Boadi