The African Development Bank (AfDB) is considering a proposal from government to provide financial and technical support to the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFAJ) programme.
The bank’s support is needed to strengthen the programme and widen its reach to more farmers to be able to produce more foodstuffs and create more jobs.
The Minister of Food and Agricultural, Dr Owusu Afriyie-Akoto, said in Accra that the government was hopeful that the bank will conclude its consideration soon for the support to be implemented.
He disclosed this at the day two of a technical consultative meeting on AfDB’s Transformation of the African Savannah Initiative (TASI) in Accra.
While commending the bank for the TASI project, aimed at transforming Africa’s savannahs into growth poles for agricultural investment, the minister said he was impressed that government’s proposal for partnership on the PFAJ had received positive feedback.
In a record time of less than six months, Dr Afriyie-Akoto said the bank had almost concluding its analysing of the government’s proposal to pave the way for a deal.
“This must be one of the record times and I am grateful that we are making a headway” he said.
He commended AfDB for choosing Ghana as one of eight countries to pilot TASI and assured them of the government’s commitment to make the project a success.
In Ghana, the MOFA is partnering the AfDB to pilot the TASI in the country’s Savannah which occupies about 400 million hectares of landmass.
It is being supported by Savannah Accelerated Development (SADA), which is now being transformed into the Northern Development Authority (NDA) following the recent passage of the NDA Bill.
Source : graphic.com.gh
