The African Development Fund (ADF), the concessional window of the African Development Bank (ADB) Group, has approved a loan of UA17mn (US$24.7mn) to finance the Export Marketing and Quality Awareness Project in Ghana.

 

The project will contribute towards the goal of increasing the export earnings of non-traditional agricultural products. The objective of the project is to increase incomes of horticulture crop farmers and exporters and of cassava producers.

 

The project components comprise the following:

 

  •  Production and productivity enhancement.

 

 

  •  Export marketing promotion and infrastructure improvement.

 

 

  •  Capacity building.

 

 

  •  Project coordination and management.

 

 

The project will be implemented in the following four regions of Ghana: Central, Eastern, Greater Accra and the southern-most part of the Volta, due to its proximity to the seaport and airport.

Most of the horticultural products for fresh export are produced in these regions.

 

The major beneficiaries of the project are the members of the existing producers/exporters associations for horticultural export crops. Although the project’s main focus group is the participating farmers and exporters, the project would benefit all horticultural growers and exporters through the upgrading of market information and intelligence capacity, improvement in infrastructure facilities like feeder roads, storage houses, refrigerated vehicles, opening windows for marketing in regional and European markets, strengthening of quality control and certification facilities and services.

 

It would also provide the environment where private investors would be encouraged to undertake further investments. For the cassava industry, the project would raise the quantity and quality of the produce even for that which is sold on the local market, thereby encouraging other farmers to invest in similar processing facilities and hence create a market for the small-scale growers. For the farmers, this would expand the reliable market for their produce.

 

In addition, the HIV/Aids awareness campaigns and malaria prevention activities are expected to contribute to improved health of the population. Increased production will create more employment in the rural and urban areas and lead to increased incomes for smallholder men and women producers and exporters. All of these improvements will contribute to improved welfare and reduced poverty.

 

The bank group’s operations in Ghana started in 1973. To date, the group has committed a total of US$710mn on 51 operations in the country.