Accra, Dec. 14, GNA - The Government of Ghana and the CEN-SAD Bank of North Africa Bank on Thursday signed the Headquarters Agreement that will allow the Bank to establish and operate in Ghana.

Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Cooperation and NEPAD, signed for Ghana while Mr Alhadi M. Alnarfalli, Chairman of the Bank signed for the Bank.

The Bank, known in French as Banque Sahelo-Saharienne pour L'Investissement et le Commerce (BSIC), is a regional financial institution established in 1999 by the Treaty of Sahelo-Saharan Community States that aims to link up the countries in the Sahel region with North Africa.

Its main components are cooperation agreement on security, protocol relating to conflict prevention, management and resolution, cooperation agreement on road transport and transit and cooperation agreement on maritime transport.

BSCI has so far established nine affiliated branches in Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Benin, Togo, Chad, Sudan and Libya. Nana Akufo-Addo said the Bank intended to provide universal banking services for both public and private customers, including short, medium and long term financing for areas including agricultural production to help achieve food security and increase export earnings.

He said other priorities were financing for industrial processing of agricultural crops, agro-industry and textiles, conventional banking services for foreign trade facilitation, economic integration and investment promotion between CEN-SAD member states.

The Bank would also undertake micro-finance for small enterprises and long-term financing for infrastructure and social services to help in the fight against poverty.

Nana Akufo-Addo said the approval process would be completed the moment Parliament resumed though the infrastructural work would begin immediately.

Ghana joined the CEN-SAD family in June 2005 and was working to accede to all the legal instruments relating to it.

Mr Alnarfalli noted that BSIC-Ghana would start with a fully paid capital of 10 million US dollars and it would do all that was necessary to mobilise local and external resources for its activities. He said apart from agriculture and agro-industrial projects, the bank would also focus on tourism, mining, communication and telecommunication, imports and exports.

Mr Alnarfalli said the agreement was a result of the hard work of President John Agyekum Kufuor, the Libyan Leader Muammar Qathafi who is also current President of the CEN-SAD Community, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Paul Acquah and an economic consultant, Mr Kwame Pianim.