He said the overriding objective of the DBG’s creation is to make long term funding available to the private sector and develop the ecosystem for market access technology and innovation.
Mr Akufo-Addo said these during the official launch of the DBG on Tuesday June 14.
“Today’s event is the culmination of years of painstaking efforts undertaken by the Akufo-Addo government to strengthen the infrastructure ,the transformation of the Ghanaian economy for private sector led growth.
“This launch comes on the heels of some unfortunate, unforgettable commentaries that accompanied the process leading to the establishment of the bank.
“A year on, the Development Bank Ghana has seen the light of the day as its foundation will help spearhead the vision of moving our nation, the situation beyond aid which involves positioning the private sector to take the lead in the socio economic transformation of our country and create quality jobs of our young people.
“The idea of setting up the Development Bank Ghana was indeed announced in the 2017 budget statement and economic policy when I first assumed office. It is one of the many policy initiatives that my government has come up with to help transform the Ghanaian economy. The overriding objective is to make long term funding available to the private sector and develop the ecosystem for market access technology and innovation,” he said.
Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) Dr Ernest Addison for his part said “Indeed, the commissioning of DBG today, could not have come at a better time because globally, there is a resurgence in the establishment of new Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) in developing countries.
“This is largely due to the fact that existing DFIs have been unable to effectively address market gaps, facilitate meaningful increases in financial intermediation in terms of outreach and scale.
“The National Development Banks, along with multilateral Development Banks, play active roles in mobilizing public and private sector resources to support critical economic sectors. Overtime, the role of development banks has expanded to include finance for infrastructure expansion, environmentally green projects, as well as a wide range of developmental objectives. Despite these, DFIs maintain the provision of medium to long-term finance and project finance at the core of their activities.”
The Government through the Finance Ministry earlier indicated that the DBG was an integral feature of the GH¢100 billion Ghana Cares ‘Obaatampa’ Project, which was seeing to the revitalization of the Ghanaian economy following the onset of COVID-19.
The Ministry of Finance and the European Investment Bank earlier signed an agreement for the provision of a one hundred- and seventy-million-euro (€170 million) facility for the establishment of the DBG.
This event took place on Wednesday, 19th May 2021, when President , Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, held a meeting with the President of the European Investment Bank, Dr. Werner Hoyer, as part of his official visit to Belgium.
The €170 million facility, according Dr. Hoyer, was the largest facility provided by the European Investment Bank for the establishment of a development bank in Africa or for any other project, for that matter, on the continent.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, President Akufo-Addo noted that “the Development Bank Ghana is going to play a very important part in the rapid economic transformation of Ghana, following the onset of COVID-19.”
