JICA Official on Three-Day Visit (Page 43)

Story: Lucy Adoma Yeboah (January 14, 2008)
THE Senior Vice-President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Mr Kenzo Oshima, has paid a three-day working visit to Ghana.
The visit was to enable him to discuss the upcoming Tokyo International Conference for African Development (TICAD) IV with the government of Ghana and also use the opportunity to inspect some completed and ongoing JICA-assisted projects in the country.
The conference (TICAD IV), which is scheduled for May 2008, is on the theme, “Towards A Vibrant Africa: Continent of Hope and Opportunity”.
A statement made available to journalists from JICA office in Ghana indicated that President J.A. Kufuor, who is chairman of the African Union (AU), had been invited to attend.
As part of the three-day visit, Mr Oshima, together with some officials from the Japanese Embassy in Ghana, paid a courtesy call on the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, at the ministry. The group later had bilateral talks behind closed doors.
During the courtesy call, Mr Oshima said one other reason why he visited Ghana was to get the opportunity to meet the former United Nations (UN) Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, and discuss with him issues concerning activities of the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) which Mr Annan is the chairman.
The Alliance for the Green Revolution in Africa, which was established in 2007 with an initial US$150 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, seeks to help millions of small-scale farmers and their families across Africa to lift themselves and their families out of poverty and hunger through sustainable increases in farm productivity and incomes.
Mr Oshima stressed that JICA would continue to support Ghana’s economic growth and its quest towards attainment of self-reliance and sustainable economic development.
He pointed out that the agency had the desire to also assist Ghana to achieve its development agenda of poverty reduction, attaining a middle-income status and meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
For his part, Mr Baah-Wiredu said Japan remained one of the most important bilateral development partners of Ghana even after its suspension of Yen loans to Ghana and pointed out that most of Japan’s technical assistance programmes and projects to Ghana was routed through JICA.
Giving a historical background to Ghana’s relationship with Japan, the Finance Minister said it was that mutual understanding and friendship that led to the establishment by Japan of the first medical research institute for Ghana — the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) — in 1979.
He stressed that “ever since, the amount of Japanese assistance to Ghana in the form of grant aid and technical assistance has tremendously increased both in value and scope”.
He said that Japanese grant aid to Ghana for the construction of roads and bridges, rural electrification and other economic and social infrastructure also topped US$14 million in March, 2006.
Mr Baah-Wiredu touched on Japan’s immense contribution to Ghana’s development through Japanese Overseas Co-operation Volunteers (JOCV) dispatched to Ghana as teachers and also Japan’s assistance through Ghana’s human resource development, poverty reduction, accelerated rural development, promotion of industrial development, debt cancellation and new grant aid facility, among others.
He took the opportunity to appeal to the Japanese government to critically consider lifting the ban of Yen loans to Ghana as soon as possible and also expedite action in giving approval for the utilisation of the aggregated balance of around US$12.4 million in the Counter Value Fund for qualified development projects in Ghana.
At the meeting was the Chief Director of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Nana Juaben-Serebour Boateng; the Japanese Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Masamichi Ishikawa; the Resident Representative of JICA in Ghana, Mr Hiroshi Murakami; and other officials from both JICA and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.