Trade and Development Bank, a specialized financial institution, is seeking entry into Ghana as a first step to reaching other countries in West Africa to support the sub-region’s economic development and trade agenda.
The Bank, which has operated mainly in Southern, Eastern and Central Africa in its 35 years history, said it was reaching out selectively to some economies in West Africa, particularly Ghana in its expansion drive efforts.
“Of course, we have started to reflect a little bit more about reaching out selectively to economies in West Africa. So Ghana being the host of the secretariat of the ACFTA is a country that we have identified as one of the countries in West Africa that we are seeking entry into to support economic development and trade agenda as well,” Mr. Admassu Tadese, TDB President and Chief Executive Officer told the Ghana News Agency on sidelines of an Africa Investment Forum.
“So we have a diversified set of products and services that we think would make good contribution to support Ghana’s economic development and integration into the sub-region as well,” he said.
Mr. Tadese said the bank has made its intentions known to government and once Ghana opts to join, then government has to sign the charter of membership, which will be ratified by Parliament.
“Once that happens, we declare ourselves ready for business,” he said, adding that the bank would then hold seminars to present the products and services to the private and public sector stakeholders so that the business community and state-owned enterprises have an idea about the bank.
“Well you know we are committed to doing business in Ghana subject to the confirmation and willingness of government to go through the steps as required to have a valid presence in Ghana. So, to do business we would need Ghana to become part of the institution,” Mr. Tadese said.
He said the bank appreciated Ghana’s macro-economic management as well as the stable political atmosphere.
“We like the way the economy of Ghana has evolved, we like the way macro-economic management has been done over the last few years. We want to see stability and discipline, we like to see good governance at the economic level and the country is stable.
You have changes in government from time to time in a peaceful and orderly manner and we just think that Ghana is one of those economies and countries that are well regarded in our parts of Africa that is why we identified Ghana as one of the select countries we want to do business within West Africa,” he added.
The multilateral, treaty-based development financial institution with assets of US$6 billion, has so far disbursed over US$30 billion in project and trade financing as well as loans to small and medium enterprises.
Source: goldstreetbusiness.com