The United Kingdom (UK) government has announced plans to invest 20 million pounds into the Ghanaian Economy with the aim of boosting government’s job creation efforts and infrastructure development through a programme dubbed “The Jobs and Economic Transformation Programme.”
The UK Minister of State for Africa at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Minister of State at the Department for International Development, Harriett Baldwin, said this when she paid a courtesy call on the President, Nana Akufo-Addo, at the Jubilee House on Tuesday,August 28.
According to Harriet Baldwin who signed the MOU on behalf of the British government, the £20 Million programme will focus its attention on four key areas.
“It will focus on some of the policy suggestions to make it easier to do business in Ghana, and on promoting of opportunities for inward investment into Ghana,” she said.
Harriet Baldwin added that focus will be brought to bear on ensuring more value-added activities take place within Ghana for the export market, and the development of infrastructure that will attract inward investment into Ghana.
She was confident that the programme will attract at least £15million of further inward investments into Ghana, which is expected to create an estimated 15,000 jobs for Ghanaians.
President Akufo-Addo in his response said his government is hopeful that the UK’s new approach in dealing with Ghana will yield dividends for both countries.
“it is good that the British government has now seen the necessity to support this area of our development and to do so with this new instruments that you are about to engage in. We will continue to value our relationship with Britain and our participation in the Commonwealth,” the President said.
Representing Ghana, the Minister for Trade and Industry, Mr. Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, noted that the current level of trade relations between Ghana and the United Kingdom do not reflect the longstanding bonds of friendship and commercial interests that the countries have enjoyed for many years.
