Parliament yesterday passed a €55,024,180.50 loan agreement between government of Ghana and the Deutsche Bank S.P.A. to finance the phase II of the development of the University of Environment and Sustainable Development (UESD) at Somanya in the Eastern Region.
This was after the Finance Committee chaired by Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah had presented the report of the committee on the loan to parliament.
The first loan agreement was a SACE (an acronym for the Italian credit agency) facility between the government and the Deutsche Bank acting as the arranger, agent and the original lender, for an amount of €41,358,082.50.
The second loan agreement was a commercial facility between the government and the Deutsche Bank for an amount of €13,666,098.00.
Giving accounts for the work of the committee before submission of its report and final resolution, the chairman of the committee said after meeting all relevant stakeholders, it was made clear that the objective of phase II of the project was to significantly expand the facilities of the university, thereby, increasing the potential number of students and also providing complementary supporting structures to students.
He said phase II was to be fully financed by the two loan facilities, thus avoiding a requirement for the government to look for internal sources immediately to provide for counterpart funding, saying, “the tied commercial facility takes care of government requirement toward the funding of the contract value.”
Dr Assibey-Yeboah said it was expected that the university would assist to attract international students from the sub-region and other parts of the world, adding that it would help generate foreign direct investment into the country to assist other development processes.
He said another importance of the university was the fact that the high level and safety awareness that would be provided through the activities of the university has the potential of providing enhanced degree of environmental monitoring necessary for running a cost effective and efficient sustainable environmental sector in Ghana.
BY LAWRENCE MARKWEI
