On Monday, 13th December 2021, the President of Ghana, Nana Addo-Dankwa Akuffo-Addo paid a working visit to Luxembourg. Among other things, he was able to acquire 82.5 million euros from the European Investment Bank.
The president met with the President of the European Investment Bank, Dr Werner Hoyer. From there, he welcomed the €82.5 million support offered to Ghana. As stated, the purpose of the offer is to strengthen Ghana’s healthcare. Also, it will go a long way to provide specialist medical equipment and medicines. This is a sought after task under the national COVID-19 Health Response Plan.
According to reports, the current offer from the European Investment Bank to Ghana is the largest of its kind. Thus, in terms of Covid-19 related grants and offers to Africa from the bank.
“Strengthened cooperation between Africa and multilateral development partners is crucial to share global best practice and ensure a rapid response to health, social and health challenges triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The European Investment Bank and the European Union are key partners for Ghana and I welcome their support for our national COVID-19 Health Response Plan,” President Akufo- Addo said.
Continuing, he said that, “Ghanaian and EIB experts have worked tirelessly in recent months to finalize this initiative since President Hoyer and I met earlier this year. Specialist healthcare and medical services will benefit from both the EIB’s largest backing for COVID health resilience in Africa and EU grant support”.
“Ghana has taken visionary steps to ensure that the impact of COVID can be managed. And long-term investment unlocked to strengthen both health services and access to finance by business. A few months ago, President Akufo-Addo and I confirmed EIB backing for the Development Bank of Ghana. It is an honour to welcome our Ghanaian friends to our Luxembourg headquarters to demonstrate the impact of our joint response to improve COVID-19 healthcare and discuss how to further strengthen Team Europe’s partnership to improve lives and opportunities in Ghana in the years ahead.” said Werner Hoyer, President of the European Investment Bank.
“Europe and Ghana stand side by side to tackle the health challenges triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The new Team Europe support for Ghana’s COVID-19 Health Response Plan will strengthen public health and enhance resilience to the pandemic across Ghana in the months and years ahead through new investment backed by the European Union and European Investment Bank,” said Jutta Urpilainen, European Union Commissioner for International Partnerships.
Unfortunately, the Covid-19 still lurks. Within the first week of December this year, the new variant Omicron had traced in Ghana. According to reports, travellers from Nigeria and South Africa were the carriers. It was a call for the nation to roll out strategies to curtail the spread. Currently, there is a pending call from authorities to make it compulsory for citizens to take the Covid-19 jab.
Apart from securing the offer, the president paid other courtesy calls. He visited the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Henri Albert Gabriel Félix Marie Guillaume. Also, he held bilateral talks with Prime Minister Xavier Bettel. Among other issues they conversed, the two countries signed a Bilateral Air Services Agreement and a Double Taxation Agreement.
The president, meanwhile, shared the overall motive for his visits. According to him, he was making effort to deepen the bilateral relations and ties of cooperation between the two countries.
Briefly, the European Investment Bank is the European Union’s investment bank. The EU Member States own it. Incredibly, it is one of the largest supranational lenders in the world. It was established in 1958 with its headquarters in Luxembourg.