President Akufo-Addo, has appealed to the United States (US) government through a delegation of the US congress, to invest heavily in Ghana’s railway infrastructure sector.
He made the appeal when he received a bipartisan congressional delegation at the Jubilee House today 26 August 2022.
According to the President, the railway network bequeathed to the country by its colonial powers were largely not built upon and has thus, become extremely necessary to develop the sector to meet the increasing transportation needs of the nation.
“We are looking for a major American investment, and I am particularly excited about the possibility of attracting American investment in our rail infrastructure. It is an important development for us”.
“The colonial powers left us with a limited but efficient railway infrastructure in the country. Unfortunately, instead of building on it, and expanding on it, we are now allowed it to deteriorate” President Akufo-Addo said.
Railway expansion agenda
In emphasizing his request, President Akufo-Addo indicated that in the case of Ghana, the choice not to build on her existing rail infrastructure, “has proven very costly”.
“We are now embarked on a very extensive programme of expanding and developing our rail infrastructure and we think that there is space there for American investment” President Akufo-Addo said.
He added that railway infrastructure and transportation “is an area that” the United States “has a lot of expertise and capabilities in”, and Ghana is certainly ready to open her doors to all American investors who would want to venture into same.
Sub-regiinal security
Issues of security in the West African region were raised by President Akufo-Addo, in his address. He observed that the new accord, Accra Initiative, which is designed to ensure a collaboration between major West African countries, such as, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso, among others, needs support from the region’s partners, particularly the United States in order to guarantee the territorial integrity of all West African States.
“The issue of security is primordial for us. We are determined to do everything we can with our limited means to make sure that it does not germinate here in our country” Akufo-Addo said.
Fact finding mission
Barbara Lee, Member of the US Congress, and chair of the subcommittee on State operations, who led the delegation, in her address noted that, she delegation is on a fact finding mission on the African continent to gather sufficient evidence in order to go back to the US congress to make recommendations on how best the US can support Africa’s development.
“We will also be conducting oversight on our foreign relations assistance programmes. We have been able to visit the fishing Harbour, the Canoe village in Tema and also the shea processing plant. We are very excited to see the progress in the manufacturing and processing of shea butter. We intend to continue to work with you and to strengthen this relationship” Miss Lee said.