It has been revealed that Ghana has an
unlimited access to the United States Exim Guarantee Bank and
thus can access any amount of loans it requires for embarking on
developmental projects of the country.
Mr Ryan Bowles, the Chief of the Economics
Section at the US Embassy in Accra made this known
in a discussion with the Executive Director of the Danquah
Institute, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, at a roundtable discussion
organised by DI to discuss the $3 billion Chinese loan facility.
According to Mr Bowles, the US is
particularly interested in ensuring transparency in any loan
agreements and the developmental projects for which the loans
are accessed.
He also revealed that the US is quite
flexible as to who gets the contract for the execution of
projects for which loans are accessed from the US bank. A
typical example is the construction of the Mallam-Tetteh
Quarshie highway which falls under the Millennium Challenge
Account. The contractor, in question who is executing this
project is Chinese, China Railway
Wuju Corporation.
Interest rates on loans accessed from the
US are comparatively lower than, for example, the 6-month LIBOR
that comes with the $3 billion Chinese loan. The benchmark
interest rate in the United States was last reported at 0.25
percent whilst the 6-month LIBOR currently stands at 0.59
percent.
With regards to China’s aggressive push
for a strong presence in Africa, Mr Bowles stated
that the US is not worried about this phenomenon and is not
aggressively pursuing investments in infrastructural development
in Africa, unlike China.
Gabby, who left Ghana last night for some
research work in the United Kingdom, said that engagement with
China is an important phenomenon for the African continent.
However, beyond the quantitative impact of growing aid, finance,
trade and investment flows, this engagement may have significant
qualitative impacts on African development, positive and
negative.
“The critical issue for African states is
to make the growing relations with China a win-win one, which
would help drive Africa’s quest for competitive
industrialization. This was my argument in May 2009,
leading to U.S. President Barack Obama’s June visit to Ghana,”
Gabby noted.
