I wish to welcome you all to this signing ceremony. This ceremony marks yet another milestone in the ever fruitful bilateral economic relations between Ghana and the United Kingdom which dates back to the colonial times and has continued to grow stronger and stronger.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the United Kingdom is one of Ghana’s key bilateral development partners in terms of volume and diversity of development assistance. In her concrete support to assist government reduce poverty and further enhance His Excellency, Prof. J.E.A. Mill’s vision for a better Ghana agenda, the UK government provided a budget support of £100.0 million for the 2009 and 2010 financial years.
In addition, UK is supporting the health sector with an annual grant of £8.0 million to provide for good maternal health care, among others.
Similarly, a grant of £100.0 million was provided to support the education sector over a ten year period from 2006-2015. The £10.0 million annual disbursement has been increased to £15.0 million to make more funds available for the education sector.
UK has also been supporting other on-going projects in different sectors of the economy, including Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare, Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) and procurement of emergency obstetric equipment for the Ghana Health Service.
Ladies and gentlemen, by this ceremony today, the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland acting through DFID is extending to the Government of Ghana a grant of £10.0 million to support the Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) project.
DFID is also providing an additional £2.0 million grant in the form of Technical Cooperation that DFID will manage in support of the public financial management reform project.
The GIFMIS project is expected to benefit from a joint pooled financing arrangement with Development Partners namely; DFID, IDA/World Bank, European Union (EU) and DANIDA.