Vice President calls for rapid processing of financial facilities

Vice President John Dramani Mahama on Tuesday called on international financial partners to initiate innovations, to expedite action on financial commitments between them and Governments.

He said slow processes of financial commitments were not only inimical to budgets of recipient countries, but also created a lot of fear and anxiety in society.

Vice President Mahama made the call when Mr Thiery Tanoh, out-going Vice President of International Finance Corporation (IFC), and Mr Yusupha Crookes, in-coming, World Bank Country Director, called on him at the Osu Castle, Accra.

The two officials, who led a delegation to visit Vice President Mahama, were there to announce the departure of the out-going Vice President of International Finance Corporation and the taking-over of the in-coming Country Director in Ghana.

Vice President Mahama mentioned commercial farming project, which was contracted three years ago, but was yet to be implemented and added that “From conceptualization to the implementation has been too slow and we think it does not help our economies to grow at the desired rate.”

He called for partnership with the World Bank and IFC to develop the Asutuare water project, which he said could produce about 600,000 cubic metres of water to serve Tema and some parts of Accra.

The Vice President said plans were also underway to develop the Sokgakope water project, to serve parts of the Volta Region and export to Togo, and called for collaboration to ensure the effective execution of the project.

On power generation, Vice president Mahama said Government was also in dialogue with the Togolese Government to develop the Oti-Juale Hydro-power project that could supply electricity to Ghana and export some to Togo.

Mr Tanoh pleaded with the Vice President to facilitate the approval of the Takoradi Thermal Project to augment the power plants in the country.

He said it was a project dear to his heart and once he started it, he would be happier to see its execution before leaving office July this year.

Mr Tanoh commended Government for rolling out prudent economic measures to create more jobs and soften economic hardships.

Mr Yusupha Crookes pledged to complete some of the projects his predecessor had left behind, and corporate effectively with Government to achieve their national goals.**