HON. MRS. OBOSHIE SAI COFIE- MINISTER FOR INFORMATION AND NATIONAL ORIENTATION ARRIVES IN WASINGTON D.C

The Honorable Minister for Information and National Orientation, Mrs. Oboshie Sai Cofie arrived in Washington D.C this weekend for a five day working visit to participate in the World Bank/IMF celebration of fifty years of reliable partnership with Ghana.

The Honorable Minister who is the keynote speaker for the occasion will be meeting with the Vice President of Africa Region, officials from the Africa Regional External Affairs, Multi-lateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and other officials of the World Bank and IMF.

It will be recalled that on September 20, 1957, Ghana signed World Bank Articles of Agreement, becoming the 64 member of the Bank Group. Fifty years down the road, over $ 5 billion in loans and grants have enabled Ghana to advance development and reforms in all spheres of her economy, beginning with assistance for the Akosombo Hydroelectric Power Dam Project. Since 1983, when the Economic Recovery Program was launched to save the economy from collapse, emphatic results have been recorded, in spite of periodic lapses:

Today, Ghana is one of the best-performing economies in Africa. Overall poverty has declined from 52 percent in 1992 to 28 percent in 2006, and Ghana is on course to exceed the 2015 MDG of halving her poverty. Real GDP growth averaged 5% over 1983-2006. Since 2005 it has hovered at 6%. Following successful HIPC debt relief in 2004, and further cancellations by donors, Ghana’s external debt, about $6 billion at 2001, is almost entirely written off.The Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy have enabled a stable economy, with inflation and interest rates nearing single digits.