The report that the Development Bank Ghana (DBG) has received nearly $800 million from its shareholders to begin operations and the assurance by the Minister of Finance that the expenditure into the National Cathedral will pay off in the future as the project was designed to double as an investment are some of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Tuesday.
The Ghanaian Times reports that the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Development Bank Ghana (DBG), Kwamina Duker, has said that the bank has received nearly $800 million from its shareholders to begin operations,
“To date, our capital and funding have come from the Government of Ghana, World Bank, European Investment Bank (EIB), African Development Bank (AfDB) and KfW. DBG has GH¢1.2 billion in capital. We have received funds in excess of $700 million from our shareholders and partners to on lend to partner financial institutions (PFIs) and provide capacity building,” he said.
Addressing the media in Accra yesterday ahead of the launch of DBG today, Mr Duker said the bank was excited about the support it had continued to receive from development partners and the Government of Ghana (GoG).
The media engagement was also to introduce the board and management of the bank, namely Dr Yaw Ansu, chairman of the board, Charles Boamah, Mary Boakye, Nora Bannerman Abbott, Rosemary Yeboah, Stephan Leudesdorff, and Yaw Nsarkoh.
The management members are Michael Mensah-Baah, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Dr Clement KwabenaOpuni-Frimpong, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Dr Prince Adjei, Risk Management Oversight, Gifty AfuaSackey, Chief Internal Auditor, El Farouk, Chief Information Security Officer, Ishmael NiiAdumoah Oku, Head Internal Control and Jocelyn Emma Ackon, Head of Human Capital.
Mr Dukersaid the bank was partnering with PFIs such as the CalBank, CBG, GCB and Fidelity Bank and provide them with funds to on lend to Small and Medium-scale Enterprise (SMEs) in the country, adding that DBG was planning to expand to include more commercial banks, as well as rural banks, microfinance institutions and savings and loans companies.
“We are also working with a number of partners who will improve the services and products available to SMEs such as the Association of Ghana Industries and Ghana Stock Exchange, Ghana Enterprise Agency, Ghana-Incentive-Based Risk-Sharing System for Agricultural Lending, Monetary Authority of Singapore, Standard Chartered Bank, Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry and UN Global Compact,” he said.
Those institutions, Mr Duker said would provide capacity building, support agribusiness services, provide digital learning and lending platform, tax services and incubator services to nurture more SMEs to be able to access the DBG funds.
Mr Duker said the bank was established to provide competitively priced funding for the growth of SMEs industry in the country due to the huge financing gap for the private sector, saying the financing gap for the manufacturing sector alone stood at more than GH¢100 billion.
The newspaper says that the Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, has assured the nation that expenditure into the National Cathedral will pay off in the future as the project was designed to double as an investment.
Beyond serving the spiritual needs of the country, MrOfori-Atta said on Sunday that the project was well crafted to double as a tourist attraction to Christians in Ghana, Africa and the world at large.
He mentioned the planned Bible museum and the inclusion of trees and artifacts of Biblical background to the cathedral as avenues to attract tourists.
Through the tourists, the minister said substantial foreign exchange would flow into the economy to support the country’s revenue needs as well as pay off for the cost of construction.
Consequently, he said the country should rally around the Board of Trustees, comprising eminent men of God and the government, to make the project a success.
Mr Ofori-Atta was speaking in an interview on GTV alongside the Chief Executive Officer of the National Cathedral Project, Dr Paul Opoku-Mensah.
The two used the opportunity to clear some misconceptions about the project, including the cost to the state and the amount spent on it so far.
The Graphic reports that the 2022 Green Ghana Planning Committee has disclosed that a total of 22,671,696 million seedlings have so far been distributed for the 2022 edition of the Green Ghana agenda, which well exceeds that initial 20 million seedling target.
The National Chairman of the Green Ghana Planning Committee, Benito Owusu-Bio, who is also the Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources disclosed this at a media briefing Monday afternoon (June 14, 2022).
He spoke on behalf of the Sector Minister, Samuel, A. Jinapor during a press conference on the aftermath of the Green Ghana Day.
The Deputy Minister called for an effective monitoring and supervision of the seedlings planted to fuel the success of the 2022 edition of the government’s aggressive afforestation and reforestation programme.
“We need to make conscious efforts to nurture the trees by watering them, protect them from destruction, prevent fires, weed under them until they grow to maturity” he said.
The Deputy Lands Minister added that, the “survival rate this year will be more than the 85 per cent survival rate last year.”
His reason is that, the Ministry has instituted a Monitoring and Assessment Team under the chairmanship of Francis Manu-Adabor, who is the Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Lands and Forestry to undertake comprehensive field assessment of trees planted this year.
Mr Owusu-Bio used the occasion to rebuff claims that the Green Ghana Day programme was politicized and partisan, indicating that the Green Ghana Day was a national assignment and that the inclusiveness of Ghanaians with diverse backgrounds in the political and religious landscape such as former President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, former President John Agyekum Kufuor, the National Chief Imam and high profile members of the clergy gives this clear indication that it is for Ghana.
The newspaper says that the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture is conducting a comprehensive assessment of tourist sites in the northern sector of the country to guide it in the development of the sites for revenue generation.
Some of the identifiable sites are the Gambaga Escarpment, the Atabiya Tuuwa, the Naa-Jeringa Wall and the Achenga Fishing Settlement, all in the East Mamprusi municipality in the North East Region.
Others are the Gwollu Slave Defence Wall and the tomb of the late President Hilla Limann in the Upper West Region.
The sector Minister, Dr Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, said this in Parliament last Thursday in response to a question by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Nalerigu-Gambaga, Seidu Issifu, on plans by the ministry to develop tourist sites in the East Mamprusi municipality to boost domestic tourism.
Dr Awal said the Gambaga Escarpment had been identified as a suitable location for adventure sports such as paragliding, zipline and abseiling, adding that it also had captivating scenic views of the surrounding area, a cascading waterfall and a Presidential Lodge where former President Kwame Nkrumah used to stay.
On the Naa-Jeringa Wall, he said it was part of the selected heritage sites that would be developed with adequate supporting infrastructure to promote tourism and enhance visitor experience, while the Achenga Fishing Settlement had been identified to be suitable for white water rafting, canoe regattas and waterfront picnics.
The minister said deliberate efforts would be made to promote leisure activities in those areas as part of the options in Ghana’s domestic tourism “Eat Ghana-share Ghana” campaign.
GIK/APA