ACCRA, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Ghana secured here on Thursday an African Development Fund (ADF) loan of 27 million Units of Aid (UA-Currency of the African Development Bank) equivalent to 39.01 million U.S. dollars to support its flagship agriculture development policy.
An agreement to that effect was signed on Thursday by Ken Ofori-Atta, Ghana's Minister for Finance, on behalf of the Government of Ghana, and Yero Baldeh, the Ghana Country Manager of the African Development Bank (AfDB) on behalf of the ADF.
The concessionary facility is meant to support government's flagship program in agriculture: Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) specifically to finance the Savannah Zone Agricultural Productivity Improvement Project (SAPIP).
The Project will be implemented over a five year period commencing in 2018 and completing in 2022.
"The project was expected to be effective in January 2018 and complete in December 2022. Thus currently, the Project is about two months behind schedule. Disbursement of the facility will come to an end on March 31, 2023," Mark Assibey-Yeboah, Chairman of parliament's committee on finance, said when the house gave approval for the facility.
The loan with a grant element of 35.97 percent was given at an interest rate of one percent per annum, with a service charge of 0.75 percent per annum, a commitment charge of 0.5 percent per annum,
It also has a grace period of five years and re-payment period of 25 years exclusive of grace period to benefit directly about 50,000 economically active small holders living in the savannah zone, and contribute to the input support program of the Ministry of the Food and Agriculture reaching about 250,000.
The SAPIP program has the objective of transforming the agricultural value chains for food and nutrition security as well as job and wealth creation within the Savannah Zone.
Specifically the program aims at increasing food and nutrition security and increase incomes of farmers through increased agricultural productivity and diversification.
It also seeks to enhance the creation and strengthening of agribusiness to increase incomes of actors along the selected value chains on sustainable basis.