The Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) is to raise five billion dollars to transform the savannah ecological zone as part of its master development plan.

Out of the amount, two billion dollars will be raised from the public sector, and three billion dollars from the private sector.

Dr. Emmanuel Abeere-inga, Director for Integrated Development Programme, SADA, disclosed this in Tamale on Thursday, during a sensitisation workshop organised by the Civil Society Organisation Platform on SADA.

The workshop, which aimed at deepening CSOs’ understanding of SADA’s master plan, was attended by groups from the Northern, Brong Ahafo and Volta Regions and funded by Ibis and Oxfarm, both NGOs.

He said SADA was putting together a comprehensive plan that would lead to the development of extensive agricultural productivity, adding that 200,000 hectares of land would be cultivated with a variety of crops.

He assured beneficiaries that the master plan would execute ambitious projects, stressing that it had various components, including education, health, agriculture and infrastructural development.

The director said sites for 23 major dams and 95 minor ones had been identified for construction in the 25-year implementation period of the master plan, adding that it would create various jobs in the formal and informal sectors to reduce unemployment drastically.

Dr. Abeere-inga indicated that when the project was aggressively implemented, per capital income in the Savannah Ecological Zone would be increased from below $1,000 to over $3,500 and an economic growth rate of 12 per cent per annum.

He stressed that the master plan was integrated into the National Development Planning Commission’s 40-year development plan, and gave the assurance that all political parties had bought into the idea.

Mr. Theophilus Dokurugu, Convener of the CSO Platform on SADA, commended the authority for developing such an ambitious plan to accelerate the development of the area, stressing that such a strategic plan was a plus to the new management at SADA.