AGM Of ADB Will Open Opportunities For Africa..

Ghana’s Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta has indicated that, the Africa Development Bank Group Annual General Meetings which is booked to be held in Ghana, would give an opportunity to the continent to answer its challenges.

Mr Ofori-Atta said, 41 African economies were seriously exposed to no less than one of three simultaneous emergencies which included rising food prices, rising energy costs and tightening financial circumstances.

The Minister spread the word about this when he addressed the media ahead of the forthcoming 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.

Counting a portion of the challenges the continent confronted, he said Food prices were 34% higher than this time last year and have never been this high since the UN’s Food, and Agricultural Organization began 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.

According to Mr Ofori-Atta, the spread and scope of these challenges require collective and coordinated action at the regional level if Africa is to overcome them.

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 in addition to 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.

Members 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.

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Mr. ofori Atta said, Ghana currently has an amazing chance to have the Annual Meetings of the two principal elements that made up the AfDB (the ADB and ADF) and that 3500 members were supposed to attend the meeting.

He further further expressed that, 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.