DBG, UGBS join forces to deepen understanding of development finance
THE Development Bank Ghana (DBG) has begun a collaborative venture with the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS) to help enhance the understanding of Development Finance and the role it plays to deliver developmental impact.
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The thought-leadership programme, which was launched on Tuesday at the UGBS, is expected to open up, stimulate and share research, incorporate best practice and initiate new thinking in the field of development finance.
The bank, as part of the partnership, will support the awarding of degrees in Development Finance to graduate students, offer internships to MSC Development Finance students, as well as scholarships for under-privileged candidates who are interested in Development Finance.
The collaboration will also afford DBG the opportunity to have its leadership as Guest Lecturers in the Business School to share practical real-life experiences and capacity building effort for the students.
Commitment
The Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of DBG, Michael Mensah Baah, at a round-table meeting after signing a memorandum of understanding with the UGBS to commence the partnership, said the bank was committed to making developmental interventions which are backed by research to help drive development in the country.
“In this regard, DBG seeks to collaborate with UG in research areas that provide evidence-based challenges to policy makers and other key stakeholders,” he said.
Mr Baah added that the bank was of the conviction that to create economic resilience and accelerate social mobility, there was the need to champion the role of knowledge, innovation and to measure impact of the bank’s intervention.
He said the vision was to accelerate an inclusive and sustainable economic transformation by fostering the growth of a competitive private sector by addressing the lack of long-term financing that drives the kinds of investment that would lead to sustainable growth.
“It is critical that we work to unleash the potential of the youth by creating the right enabling environment.
Therefore, DBG has been designed to help relieve the bottlenecks that have hindered the availability of long-term, competitively-priced loans to small and medium sized enterprises in Ghana,” he said.
He explained that the bank had adopted a wholesale banking model to provide funding to eligible financial institutions to on-lend to Ghanaian businesses in targeted industry sectors.
“Central to all this is ensuring that sufficient capital is allocated towards the productive sectors of our economy and in the case of DBG, we are looking to agri-business, ICT, high-value services and manufacturing, as the sectors we think can transform the Ghanaian economy,” he said.
So far, he said about GH₵300 million have been given to businesses to support ventures in agriculture, manufacturing and tourism.
Women empowerment
Mr Baah said supporting women-led businesses was also a core part of DBG’s focus.
Already, he said, the bank was partnering with Ghana Enterprises Agency to support female entrepreneurs through providing customised capacity building for women-led businesses.
“DBG is keen to support the less fortunate and in this regard, DBG, in collaboration with UG, will be introducing scholarships for less fortunate young men and women who would want to take up the MSc in Development Financing programme but cannot afford it,” he said.