US Renews Commitment To SADA And People Of Northern Ghana

The United States Ambassador to Ghana, His Excellency Robert Jackson has reiterated his country’s unflinching support for the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), and that the US Government has renewed its interest in SADA because, building host country institutions is a priority on their agenda. 

Mr. Jackson said this when he paid a courtesy call on Dr. Charles Abugre, Chief Executive Officer of SADA and his Management team in Tamale recently. 

He acknowledged the contrast and dramatic difference and inequality between the North and South of Ghana; but added that people in the Northern Savannah Ecological Zone (NSEZ) were resilient even in these extreme situations. 

Mr. Jackson therefore posited that there was the need for SADA and the US Government to find ways to sustain this resiliency so that the momentum in people would not be lost. The United States Embassy in Ghana, he noted, would work together with SADA to attract more private sector investments into the Zone since it was the only way more jobs could be created. 

He however acknowledged that the United States Embassy in Ghana would need SADA’s guidance in this direction to make the United States taxpayers investment in the NSEZ purposeful and sustainable. 

From Right, Mr. Jackson (US Amb. to Ghana) Standing Next To Dr. Charles Abugre in Smock

  

He further stressed that the US Government was still committed to the AGOA Initiative and the opportunities it would offer to people of the NSEZ by focusing it on the entire value chain to make it more effective in the coming years. 

Mr. Jackson also extolled Dr. Abugre’s leadership and the restructuring of SADA as an opportunity for partnership and added that the United States would continue to support SADA to offer local solutions and improve aid effectiveness in the NSEZ. 

Dr. Charles Abugre also expressed his appreciation to the US Ambassador for his visit and further recounted the good partnership that existed between SADA and the US through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). 

He further reiterated SADA’s continual effort to work with USAID and all other United States agencies to ensure the NSEZ was transformed and free of poverty.

The US Ambassador was accompanied by the USAID Head of Mission in Ghana, Mr. Andy Karas, Officials of the US Embassy in Ghana and a host of other dignitaries.