China’s president planning to visit Ghana this year

China's President, Xi Jinping, is said to be planning a visit to Ghana this year to deepen bilateral cooperation between Ghana and his country, B&FT has reported.

According to the local newspaper, its sources say the visit by the president of the world's second-largest economy is to reciprocate President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's visit to China last year.

Ghana and China have built bilateral cooperation in many areas, including education, health, and military among others.

Last year, President Akufo-Addo was one of the African leaders invited to attend the Beijing Summit on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

He held separate bilateral talks with President Xi and the Chinese Premier, Li Keqiang on deepening ties of cooperation and bonds of friendship between the two countries.

The occasion was also used to sign a $2billion barter deal with the Chinese.

The Chinese president's visit will be his first to Ghana since assuming the presidency in 2013.

During the 2018 Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held in Beijing, President Xi disclosed that China would support Africa with $60billion to finance infrastructure on the continent.

The financing, he said, would be provided in the form of government assistance as well as investment and financing by financial institutions and companies.

The financing includes $15billion grants, interest-free loans and concessional loans, $20billion of credit lines, the setting-up of US$10billion special fund for development financing, and $5billion special funds for financing imports from Africa.

Chinese companies are also encouraged to input at least $10billion of investments into Africa over the next 3 years. In the area of education, China has extended a $60million grant to Ghana in support of the second phase of work on the University of Health and Allied Sciences' (UHAS).

China has also pledged to increase its scholarship support to Africa to about 50,000 students this year. Currently, Ghana tops with student-enrollment into China, with about 7,000 Ghanaians schooling in China.

Mr Edward Boateng, Ghana's Ambassador to the People's Republic of China, speaking to the B&FT said Ghana's bilateral cooperation with China has moved to the next level since President Akufo-Addo took over the presidency in 2017.

 "Last year, for instance, was a good year; we saw many ministers and government officials from Ghana participating in various summits in China,” he said.