UK pledges increased development support for Ghana

Accra, March 2, GNA - The United Kingdom is to scale up development support for Ghana over the next four years after a review of its bilateral aid strategy.

The UK government said it would increase its annual development assistance from A385 million in 2010/11 to A3100 million in 2014/15, making a total of A3375 million or GH¢900 million over the next four years.

Mr Tom Crowards, Deputy Country Director of the UK Department for International Development (DFID), who announced this at a press briefing in Accra on Wednesday, said the support would help the Ghana government to deal with the problems of bureaucracy in public institutions so as to accelerate the growth of the private sector. It will also help in promoting farmers' access to markets to enhance the livelihood of small scale farmers, especially those in the Northern Regions. Other areas to be covered are education, governance, health and support for the vulnerable through the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) Programme. Mr Daniel Graymore, Acting Country Director of DFID Ghana, said the two governments would work together to improve the budgeting system, ensure efficient management of oil revenues and promote accountability as well as expand the LEAP intervention.

Mr Graymore said within the four years, the UK support would enable the government to check poor teacher attendance and absenteeism and boost the training of 46,000 new teachers.

There will also be the provision of cash grants to over 250,000 of the poorest and most vulnerable people in Ghana, 75 per cent of which will be for women in addition to providing incentives to ensure that 60,000 girls attend high school and the distribution of 4.75 million bednets to help prevent malaria by 2015.

Mr Matthew Johnson, Deputy British High Commissioner to Ghana, said Ghana and Britain had a shared commitment and responsibility to fight poverty.