On Thursday 16th September 2021, The Northern Development Authority (NDA) received a delegation from Wesgro , trade, tourism and investment promotion agency for Cape Town and Western Cape in South Africa.

The group, which included members of the Agribusiness Development Corporate (ADC) African Group, the Eastern Cape Development Agency, and the Ghana South Africa Chamber of Commerce, are seeking to explore investment opportunities and partnership in the northern zone, particularly those within the agribusiness space.

The new leadership of The Northern Development Authority (NDA) in its efforts to improve upon the agricultural gains in Northern Ghana and explore investment opportunities, facilitated a meeting between Agribusinesses in Northern Ghana and their counterparts in South Africa. The agribusinesses from South Africa with expertise in the agricultural value chain included companies like African Fertilizers and Agribusiness Partnership, Bagtech, Cubicool, Mariswe and Rotrix Africa. The rest are Freshmark Systems, SBS Agric, Southern Mapping and Wesgro.

The Chief Executive Officer of NDA Alhaji Sumaila Abdul Rahaman in his welcome address stated that the engagement with the investors from South Africa falls in line with the mandate of the authority which is a vehicle to accelerate the overall socio-economic development of the zone and to complement government’s aggressive campaign and intervention such as the Planting for Food and Jobs, One Village One Dam, One District One Factory and One Constituency One Million Dollars among others.

Alhaji Sumaila noted that the NDA has the responsibility to coordinate all development initiatives which includes security, agriculture, poverty eradication and livelihood support programmes.

Board Chairman of the NDA, Dr. Sulemana Abdulai on his part said the meeting is to create opportunities for Ghanaian investors to be able to interact with other investors in other parts of the world especially South Africa.

He noted there are lot of opportunities and since most of the participants are entrepreneurs who are in to agricultural inputs, processing, packaging, livestock and peasant farming, the platform created by NDA will enable them to interact with their South African counterparts, share ideas and network to improve their businesses and investment opportunities.

The leader of the South African Agribusiness Delegation to Northern Ghana, Mr. Hennie van der Merwe disclosed that they believe in agribusiness opportunities in Northern Ghana and wanted to meet key players to get a better understanding of what the sector is all about to enable them add value to the agribusinesses in the north. Presentations were done by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture ( MOFA) , CSIR-Savanna Agricultural Research Institute and the Agribusiness Private Sector in the northern zone to among other things ensure investors have adequate understanding of government’s flagship programmes aimed at improving the Agribusiness sector , Setting the scene for discussion on agribusiness in the northern development (NDZ) zone, explore the investment opportunities in the Agribusiness value chain within the NDZ and NDA can facilitate progress and highlight opportunities for partnerships and collaborations . It also seeks to help stakeholders understand the role and current state of research in the Agribusiness value chain and recommendations that are yet to be implemented.