The Development Bank Ghana and the Netherlands Embassy are seeking to build a long-term partnership based on mutual objectives and interests.
This comes at a time when the Embassy is developing a new strategy for relations between the Netherlands and Ghana, and the Embassy’s role.
In an interview with the B&FT following a meeting between the two parties, Ambassador Jeroen Verheul highlighted that the Embassy is focused on strengthening investment and trade relations between the Netherlands and Ghana.
“We are very much focusing on strengthening investment and trade relations between the Netherlands and government. There is a strong relationship, but we want to intensify this relationship further and we are looking for partners in Ghana to help us achieve this objective.
“The Development Bank Ghana is a new institution recently developed with a similar objective we have as an embassy trying to achieve development outcomes – but through a business-oriented strategy,” he added.
He further stated that building alliances is very important because the DBG, as an institution, is still in its infant stage; hence, the Embassy is enthusiastic about attempting to create cooperation between organisations that are similar to the DBG from the Netherlands and already have active portfolios in Ghana.
“We have institutions in the Netherlands that will be very interested in teaming up with DBG in order to grow their business. So, I’m thinking for example about the FMO – which is the development finance institution of the Netherlands and has a portfolio here in Ghana. They invest, for example, in the Niche – Cocoa Industry Ltd., one of the chocolate-producing factories in Ghana; and they are looking at expanding their portfolio income.
“They don’t have any representation here, so they need institutions to work with in Ghana so they can expand their work. So what we are trying to do is to build this partnership to find where there are organisations that have a mutual objective and mutual interest, and then try to bring them together,” the Ambassador said.
The Chief Executive Officer of DBG, Kwamina Duker, commenting on the partnership, said it’s important for them to build partnerships and work together in terms of areas that will obviously be aligned.
Indicating the areas of focus, Mr. Duker mentioned the need to focus on building development outcomes through strong partnerships.
“One of the key factors is that as we work to build out development outcomes, as we look to bring the development bank in terms of what we can do to support the private sector, we cannot do it alone; and it’s important that at this time we work together with the right partners in a partnership of equality, ensuring the development outcomes which our country needs at this particular time are executed,” he said.
