Urging the two nations to take their relationship to the next level, President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday asked India and Ghana to increase the existing trade from $3 billion to $5 billion. Ghana expressed its desire to procure nuclear energy to meet its requirements.
Visiting Ghana to expand the outreach of India to Africa, the President and his counterpart John Mahama agreed to encourage the private sector to achieve the target of increasing trade. President Mukherjee said that in the past, Government-to-Government efforts were the mainstay of increasing trade and improving infrastructure. Now the time has come to let the private sector play a prominent role, both the leaders concurred.
Ghana evinced keen interest in partnering with India in the civil nuclear energy sector as it is facing problems in this critical field of development. At present, Ghana is dependent on gas supply from Nigeria and is facing problems due to erratic supply as the gas comes through land-based pipe line. The two countries agreed to explore the possibilities in this key sector for sustainable energy, officials said here after the meeting between the two leaders and delegation-level talks.
India, which is already involved deeply in the development of Ghana in the field of education, rural electrification and other related fields, extended a $400 million line of credit for building a 55-km-long railway line in the country. It will connect the major Ghana port to the hinterland thereby boosting development, they said.
The two countries also decided to intensify co-operation in the fields of mining, agro-sector and information technology. Ghana is rich in minerals and exports more than 80 per cent gold to India.
In the first ever visit by an Indian President to Ghana, a stable democracy in Africa, Mukherjee and Mahama were witness to signing of three MoUs in the fields of exemption of visa on official and diplomatic passports, bilateral commission to enhance overall trade relations and interaction between foreign institutes of two countries.
India agreed to Ghana’s request for investment in low-cost housing and advanced medial health sector in the African nation. In fact, several Indian companies were already exploring possibilities in this field.
Given the pre-eminence of India in IT sector and its big presence in Ghana, the delegation-level talks also gave the go-ahead for increasing scholarships for Ghana students to India from 250 to 300.
In another measure to provide sustainable development, India recently provided know how and finances for setting a fish processing plant in Ghana, officials said. It will transform the lives of fishermen in a major way, they said, adding President Mahama himself commissioned a sugar plant. It will help the sugarcane growers, they said, adding Ghana at present imports sugarcane-related products and the plant will bring down the bill substantially.
President Mukherjee, who started his week-long tour of three African nations, including Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and Namibia, on Monday, unveiled a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the Ghana capital. He also interacted with business delegation of Ghana and the Indian community.