Business, companies and jobs are bringing Italy and Ghana ever-closer. The export volumes of Italian companies to the West African State amount to approximately 205 million euros (according to 2015 figures). The trade volumes were highlighted by the Italian Embassy in Ghana which recalled that “the figures provided by the Foreign Ministry indicate that about a quarter of these exports is represented by industrial machinery”.
In order to promote and develop this important trade channel with Africa, while simultaneously supporting a development strategy for the continent, Italy assures its presence through several cooperation initiatives. Among these, the most important is tied aid programmes through which in 2004 the Foreign Ministry’s Directorate General for Development Cooperation made available a credit fund of around 30 million euros, which was to be allocated to small and medium-sized companies that wanted to invest in Ghana using Italian-made technology and know-how. The newly established Italian Development Cooperation Agency, which took over the “Ghana Private Sector Development Facility”, operates in Ghana with its own personnel who report directly to Ambassador Laura Carpini.
