SADA is open to investors — Adam Sulley
The Board Chairman of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), Mr Adam Sulley, has stated that the authority is ever ready for investors who are willing to invest and help in developing the SADA area.
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According to him, the area still lags behind in development in terms of modern agriculture and infrastructure and social services and, therefore, the authority needs the capacity and competence of such investors to fill the gap.
Mr Sulley said this in an interview with Graphic Business at the China-Ghana Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum in Accra.
He said SADA, with its mandate to develop the northern part of the country, had developed some approaches to address some of the challenges the authority was facing.
The authority has for the last four months engaged people to help it draw a five-year master plan, which is in the context of the Nation Development Planning Commission (NDPC).
He also said SADA was working with the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) to build the capacity of entrepreneurs.
“SADA is not a replacement but an addition, so you have the respective ministries doing their part. But that does not mean SADA should not show the way by attracting investors on the side,” he noted.
The Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Her Excellency Madam Sun Baohong, stated in her address that her country was willing to provide resources in cultivation, animal husbandry, grain storage, irrigation, and pets control to help improve the overall agricultural production capacity in the SADA zones.
She said China was willing to send more agricultural experts through bilateral channel and the South-South cooperation framework to help train agricultural technology personnel in Ghana.
According to the Madam Baohong, the western part of China, which covers over 70 per cent of the country, was also relatively underdeveloped in the early part of the 21st century.
However, she said, the government came up with the Great Western Development Strategy which in the past decade had recorded brilliant achievements with projects such as the railway, highway and airport.
Objectives of the forum
The objective of the forum was to bring together relevant government officials and investors to deliberate on how to develop the SADA zones.
It was also expected to provide participants with the opportunity to know about the investment environment and policies, especially in the SADA zones and to establish enterprises from both sides to better understand the market demands of the two countries.