The Development Bank Ghana (DBG) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS) to collaborate and deepen the understanding of Development Finance and its impact on development.
Through the collaboration, DBG will support the awarding of degrees in Development finance to graduate students, offer internships to MSC Development Finance students as well as scholarships for under-privileged candidates who are interested in Development Finance.
It will also stimulate and share research, incorporate best practice and initiate new thinking in the field.
The UGBS under the agreement is expected to offer opportunity to DBG to have its leadership as Guest Lecturers in the Business School to share practical real-life experiences and improve capacity building effort for students.
Speaking at a roundtable after the signing ceremony, Mr Michael Mensah Baah the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of DBG said the bank was committed to making developmental interventions, which are backed by research, hence collaboration with the school to research into areas of challenges for policy makers and other key stakeholders.
“We believe we can come up with better solutions than we would alone. I know that our partnership with the University would further enhance our ability to make the positive economic impact in Ghana,” he said.
He said the partnership would also create the opportunity for the bank to support young entrepreneurs through the recently launched Ghana Integrated Financial Ecosystem (GIFE) to deliver financial literacy capacity building to the students.
“Estimates from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) suggest that about 1.55 million adults, 15 years and above were unemployed in 2021. 74 per cent of them defined as “young”. Some future youth entrepreneurs are here today” he said.
The Vice Chancellor of the University, Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, said she was hopeful a research collaboration between the Bank and a highly ranked
academic institution like the UG with would be of immense benefit to the nation.
She said while the domestic public finance and international development corporation remained central for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by 2030, it was important for Development Finance Institutions to play a critical role of providing funding for sustainable development at a time of global economic downturns.
“But the question is can they deliver; this is where strategic partnership with renowned academic institutions like UG become imperative,” she said.
She assured that the UGBS was well placed to provide the needed support for the realisation of DBG’s vision of accelerating inclusive and sustainable economic transformation.
