President John Mahama has said government is repositioning the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) to attract more investors to improve agriculture and business opportunities in the savannah zone.

Speaking at the 20th Ghana International Trade Fair in Tamale Saturday March 5, 2016, Mr Mahama said SADA is back on track and it is going to be a vehicle for the accelerated development of the savannah zone of the country.

“When SADA was formed, we realised that the challenges that were needed to be addressed in the savannah zone were very difficult challenges, and, so, it was the determination of government to let SADA hit the ground running, but often you can’t force a baby to walk,” Mr Mahama said.

“It must crawl before it walks. So, in the hurry to let SADA start running as quickly as possible, there were challenges, as a result of the fact that it structurally had not been set up properly [and] did not get half the government systems to carry out its work effectively and, so, of course we suffered setbacks, but I am very happy and very proud that a new management board and the chief executive and management of SADA have appropriately repositioned SADA to be able to achieve the vision that we set it up to achieve.

“Several documents have been made that create the platform for attracting more investments into Ghana and I want to thank the partners, who have worked with SADA to produce most of these feasibility study documents.

“A comprehensive feasibility of the agricultural potential of the whole savannah zone has been drawn up and it makes it even easy for any investor, who wants to come and invest in the agricultural potential of the north, to pick that document and be able to gain all the information about soil types, the kind of crops that can be able to grow in which part of the Savannah zone and I think that that is the kind of role that we expect that SADA should be playing” he said.

The fair brought together about 600,000 exhibitors – from Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Togo, Burkina Faso, South Africa, Turkey, China, and Syria – to the Tamale Sports Stadium. They showcased various products: handicrafts, medicines, textiles, agricultural equipment, borehole pumping machines, among others.