Ghana and the United State of America have signed a 1.4 million dollar project agreement to improve on research in agriculture and agribusiness.
The project is to help improve the existing environment for private sector investment.
Mr Ato Forson, Deputy Minister for Finance, who signed the agreement on behalf of Ghana yesterday, said it was also to improve policies leading to growth in the agriculture sector.
He said the Ghana-US bilateral cooperation was delivered under the broad framework of Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS) which replaced the County Strategic Plan in 2013.
He said the CDCS focuses on areas including sustainable and broadly shared economic growth, equitable improvements in health and strengthening democratic governance.
He said the provision of technical and financial support to the agriculture and agribusiness units was being funded under the Sustainable Broadly Shared Economic Growth Agreement.
Mr Forson said the US government remained Ghana’s strategic partner and had demonstrated its intent to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals.
“The Ghana-US bilateral cooperation has contributed to improved access to basic education, expanded access to healthcare services and strengthened civic participation in democratic process,” he said.
Ms Cheryl Anderson, United State Agency for International Development, Ghana Mission Director, said a good policy was a key element to creating a broad based economic growth and an enabling environment for private sector investment.
She said policy makers could not make sound policy decisions without good data and analysis.
“That is precisely what this support is designed to provide, bringing new staff, training the staff and providing the relevant equipment to support evidence-based decision making in the agriculture sector, she said.
Ms Anderson said the support the US government was offering would be a driving force to ensure that policy makers have the right information to make tough decisions.
Source: GNA
