Mr Alex Bernasko (4th right), Board Chairman of ADB; Mrs Abena Osei-Asare (4th left), Deputy Minister of Finance designate; Dr John Kofi Mensah (3rd left), MD of ADB, and other board and management members of ADB with the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II The Development Bank of Ghana (DBG), when established, should forge a closer collaboration with the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) to drive the agricultural sector.
The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, who called for this, said the establishment of the development bank should be aimed at giving banks, such as the ADB, enough funds to grow the agricultural sector of the economy.
Otumfuo Osei Tutu made the call when the Board of Directors of the ADB and its management paid a courtesy call on him at the Manhyia Palace last Friday.
“I will be a key advocate for institutions such as the DBG and the African Development Bank to give loans to banks such as the ADB to enable it to give more loans to all within the agribusiness value chain,” he said.
According to him, agriculture remained the backbone of the Ghanaian economy, for which reason it must be given all the needed support.
The Asantehene commended the board and the management of the ADB for helping to make the bank profitable again and also refocusing on its core mandate of agricultural financing.
He urged the management to continue to support the agricultural sector to grow and create more jobs for the teeming unemployed youth.
Investment
Briefing the Asantehene, the Board Chairman of the ADB, Mr Alex Bernasko, said since taking over, the new board had been trying to reposition the ADB as one of the profitable banks in the country.
According to him, when the new board took over in 2017, the bank had made a loss of close GH¢70 million, but with prudent management and measures put in place, “things are taking positive trends”.
Last year, he said, the bank announced a GH¢500 million support for the broiler value chain as part of its contribution to reduce the importation of poultry products into the country and boost local production and consumption of poultry within the next five years.Apart from that, Mr Bernasko said, the bank had also been a major partner of key government projects, such as Planting for Food and Jobs and the One District, One Factory (1D1F), which, he indicated, were all agricultural focused. Customer appreciation In a related […]