GHANA Mission Director of USAID, Mr. Andy Karas, has announced his outfit’s readiness to partner the Ghanaian government to help farmers in general but with much focus on improving cocoa production in the Ashanti Region.
With USD150 million available, Mr. Karas said the USAID was injecting these funds into four areas – agriculture, economic growth, education and governance in the country – with much of its projects taking place in Ashanti and the Northern Regions.
The Ghana Mission director of the USAID made these revelations when he, together with his team, paid a courtesy call on the Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei-Mensah, in his office on Wednesday, March 1, 2017.
The USAID mission director is on a four-day working tour in the region, visiting their project sites and also seeing how they can continue to support the people with the needed logistics to ensure efficiency.
The visit, among others, also enabled the USAID boss to congratulate the minister on his appointment by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
High on the agenda was how they can partner with the new minister to improve cocoa production in the region.
They also discussed ways that the two offices can work together to improve the overall wellbeing of farmers in the region.
Addressing the regional minister later, Mr. Karas noted that they are ready to partner the minister to ensure that they build the local capacity of the people in the region for them to be economically independent.
“We are also committed to providing support for businesses, while ensuring that allocated funds to people are properly utilised,” he added.
He said USAID will also support the various metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies in the Ashanti Region for them to efficiently operate.
He also commended Hon. Osei-Mensah for his strict adherence to time and duty, explaining that such attitude was critical, particularly at a time that the government wants to refocus the direction of the country to a more prosperous one.
For his part, the regional minister called for an effective, open, sincere and strong working partnership to exist between the region and other global development partners.
Join GhanaStar.com to receive daily email alerts of breaking news in Ghana. GhanaStar.com is your source for all Ghana News. Get the latest Ghana news, breaking news, sports, politics, entertainment and more about Ghana, Africa and beyond.
