ECOWAS BANK OFFERS $15 MILLION TO GHANA

THE Lome-based ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) has granted a loan of $15 million to the Ghana National Fire Ser¬vice, to finance the procurement of efficient fire fighting equipment.

The facility, which is expected to finance the acquisition of about 70 new fire engines, will enable the country to confront wild fires that have previously razed down homes and farms, mostly in the interior parts of the country.

A Deputy Minister of Finance and Eco¬nomic Planning, Professor George Gyan Baffour, signed the fire fighting loan agree¬ment with the President of the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development, Mr. Christian Adovelande, at the bank's head¬quarters in Lome, Togo.

Mr Adovelande stressed that modern equipment for the Ghana Fire Service was a priority for the security needs of the country because if fire outbreaks were not quickly brought under control, they became a source of destruction of life and property to the detriment of society.

He expressed the hope that the acquisi¬tion of the modern fire fighting equipment would lead to the efficient management of the menace of fire disasters in Ghana.

For his part, Prof. Gyan-Baffour pledged that the facility would be used prudently to ensure value for money.

The deputy finance minister emphasised that Ghana's development agenda was based on agricultural development and that the acquisition of new fire fighting equip¬ment would help to contain the incidence of bush fires which destroyed farms.

He said the downward move by the Sahelian drought from the north of Ghana was turning dry Harmattan grass into flammable bush fires.

Prof. Gyan-Baffour said the Ghana gov¬ernment would allocate each district with one newly acquired fire fighting machine.
He revealed that Ghana also planned to acquire helicopters in the future to help fight bush fires, adding that "may be we shall knock at your doors• once again sometime in the future".

The Deputy Fire Officer of the Ghana National Fire Service, Mr William J. Men¬sah, told this reporter that "the EBID loan will help in the fight against fire outbreaks because the present fire fighting equipment is too old."

He said the development of high rise buildings in Ghana had made it necessary to acquire modern fire fighting machines to contain fire outbreaks.

Credit: Daily Graphic