Accra, 12th May, 2022 - Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta has hinted that, the Africa Development Bank Group Annual General Meetings to be held in Ghana would provide an avenue for the continent to respond to its challenges.
He noted that, 41 African economies were severely exposed to at least one of three concurrent crises which included rising food prices, rising energy prices and tightening financial conditions.
The Minister made this known when he addressed the media ahead of the upcoming 57th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the African Development Bank and the 48th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the African Development Fund.
Enumerating some of the challenges the continent faced, he said Food prices were 34 percent higher than this time last year and have never been this high since the UN's Food, and Agricultural Organisation started recording them.
Again, crude oil prices had increased by around 60 percent, and gas and fertilizer prices had more than doubled, global inflation rose to a decade high of 6.0 percent in February, causing many central banks to signal increases in interest rates, inevitably leading to higher debt servicing costs and the number of people experiencing hunger has increased by 46 million in Africa.
“The spread and scope of these challenges require collective and coordinated action at the regional level if Africa is to overcome them” he said.
The annual general meeting under the "Achieving Climate Resilience and a Just Energy Transition for Africa" will commence from 23rd to 27th May 2022 will be officially open by President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo.
The meeting among other things would have 30 indigenous industrialists and 5 FINTECHs to showcase their services and products and provide an opportunity to advance the cause of economic integration to respond to Africa’s challenges.
Participants at the meeting would include Ministers for Finance, Governors of Central Banks, Leaders of local and international Finance and Development Organizations.
Others would be captains of industry, and civil society, 4 organizations from the 81 Member States of the AfDB; made up of 54 Regional and 27 non-regional member countries.
Mr. Ofori-Atta noted that, Ghana now had an opportunity to host the Annual Meetings of the two main entities that made up the AfDB (the ADB and ADF) and that 3500 participants were expected to attend the meetings.
He further conveyed the country’s gratitude to the African Development Bank for the numerous developmental projects Ghana had undertaken through its “enduring partnership with the bank”.
These included the construction of the only four-tier Interchange in West Africa, the Pokuase Interchange, to ease traffic and improve productivity, the construction of the Terminal 3 at the Kotoka International Airport to enhance travel experiences and promote connectivity, the construction of the Awoshie-Pokuase road, Fufulso-Sawla Road and parts of the Northern Corridor Roads to advance the exchange of goods and services and deepen economic integration.
“We are also thankful to the AfDB for its support in establishing the Development Bank Ghana (DBG) and providing US$70million to complement the Government's attempts at protecting lives and preserving livelihoods in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic” he disclosed.
The press briefing was attended by the Minister for Information, Hon. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, a Deputy Minister for Finance, Hon. John Ampontuah Kumah, Officials of the Ministry of Finance and the Media. END