Release Funds Early - President Urges Donors

President J.A Kufuor has called on international financial institutions to speed up with the processes in granting loans to Ghana to enable the country to attain its targeted growth rate.
He said the targeted growth rate of eight per cent in the next few years ahead, coupled with the envisaged massive infrastructural development, would be a mirage if the delays in granting loans to the country continue.

President Kufuor was speaking at the end of a Ghana Consultative Group meeting in Accra on Wednesday.

The meeting, attended by the country's development partners, including the members of the diplomatic corps, representative of multilateral institutions and civil society organizations discussed Ghana's development and the way forward.

The President pointed out that, for example, the rehabilitation of the 250-kilometre Accra-Kumasi Road would not have taken four to five years to be completed if the provision of funds had been timely.

He cited the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank as some of the financial institutions whose processes of granting loans take two to three years.

However, he said the government had taken into consideration the concerns and observations raised by the development partners and would work around the clock to address them.

He said plans were far advanced for the launching of a 50million dollar small and micro loan scheme to assist operators in the private sector still needed to be encouraged to fully participate in the development process of the country.

Though international credit rating agencies have rated Ghana so high, he said, the private sector still needs to be encouraged to fully participate in the development process of the country.

With a number of international organizations investing in the country, the Ghanaian economy will soon feel the powerful presence of the private sector, he added.

Proposing ways of enhancing an effective decentralization, he said the country should have more competent assembly members who can make their chief executives accountable to their people.

The President said that with the current economic stability, the government will not borrow indiscriminately to dislocate the trend.

“If it becomes necessary at all for us to borrow because of our infrastructural development, we will go into projects that are self-financing,” he said.