Parliament has approved three loan agreements to finance the Ghana Tree Crop Diversification Project (GTCDP), the Ghana Productive Safety Net Project II (GPSNP) and the West Africa Coastal Areas Resilience Investments programme.
The facilities, totalling $500 million, are agreements between the government of Ghana and the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank Group.
They comprise a $200 million credit agreement to finance the GTCDP, $150 million to finance GPSNP and another $150 million for the West Africa Coastal Areas Resilience Investments Programme.
The GTCDP will boost production and add value to six strategic tree crops, while the GPSNP is targeted at complementing the government’s efforts to end extreme poverty.
The WACA programme is meant to strengthen the resilience of coastal communities to withstand the adverse impact of global warming.
Strategic tree crops
Presenting the reports on the loan facilities ahead of their approval in Parliament last Friday, the Chairman of the Finance Committee, Kwaku Kwarteng, said the GTCDP would improve economic, climate and social resilience in the productivity and value addition of the seven strategic tree crops.
He said cocoa, cashew, shea, mango, coconut, rubber and oil palm would be grown in 11 selected districts across five regions — Western North, Eastern, Savannah, Bono and Bono East regions.
The project will be implemented from 2023 to 2029 to support important sector-wide activities and reform, as well as investments on the ground in priority agro-ecological areas chosen for their ability to reach the critical mass and make interventions as effective as possible.
The total cost of the project, he said, was $227.5 million, with $50 million from IDA performance-based allocation, $150 million from the IDA scale-up window shorter maturity loans and $27.5 million in counterpart financing from COCOBOD.
Beneficiaries
Justifying the choice of locations for the tree crops, Mr Kwarteng said the committee was informed that geographical areas were selected due to the high impact potential because the selected agro-ecological areas could scale up and make the intervention as effective as possible and also reduce the relatively high poverty rate in those locations.
He said the projects’ direct beneficiaries would be cocoa, cashew, coconut and rubber farmers.
“Improved productivity and incomes will directly benefit 52,775 farmers and their households as a result of project interventions in farm productivity.
Women will account for an estimated 40 per cent of the beneficiaries.
“Through project matching grants, technical assistance support and access to markets and services, an estimated 185 small and medium-sized enterprises that add value to cocoa, cashews and coconuts will benefit directly,” he said.
Source: graphic online
