The whole project of Knights a.s. company includes the delivery of 200 bridges, but due to limited funds it is divided into four tranches of 50 bridges. In 2019, the first tranche of EUR 50 million is expected to be implemented, in the second quarter of 2019 the government wants to start discussing the deliveries of the second tranche. The Government of Ghana wants to present this project as fulfilling its election promises.

Delivery of small and medium bridges produced by MCE Slaný s.r.o. it is intended to help both the agricultural sector to have easier access to agricultural land and the transport sector in order to achieve a more efficient transport of agricultural production to sales and storage sites. The project is also in line with the government's priority of achieving self-sufficiency in rice and maize production in 2023. Given that delivery involves engineering, this project will also offer a lot of jobs for local businesses.

Company Knights a.s. has been striving to implement the project for more than 5 years, but only with the arrival of the new administration in January 2017 has there been a significant shift. Despite the strong competition from companies in Poland, Spain, the USA and China, it succeeded in persuading the Minister of Roads and Highways of Ghana, Hon. Kwasi Amoako-Atta, to visit the Czech Republic in June 2018 in order to inspect and negotiate financial conditions. See the previous article on our website. Following the successful journey of the Minister, the project was approved by the Government of Ghana in December 2018. However, given the need to control the country's further indebtedness by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Parliament had to approve the government's guarantee, which was only achieved at the end of February 2019.

Representatives of the Czech Embassy in Accra assisted by majority of negotiations between company Knights a.s. and the Ministry of Roads and Highways, they also lobbied to assign this contract to a company from the Czech Republic and accompanied Hon. Minister Amoako-Atta during his inspection trip to the Czech Republic.

At the beginning of April 2019, has been prepared a ceremonial signing of a delivery contract between Knights a.s. and the Ghanaian Ministry of Roads and Highways, and at the same time signing a loan agreement with CSOB and Ghanaian Treasury officials.

Due to the fact that Ghana intends to build another 1,300 bridges over the next period and does not have enough funds, the project of Knights a.s. is a suitable solution for the entire Ghanaian infrastructure sector. Demand for similar funding projects is also emerging in other West African countries.

Tomáš Zázvorka, Commercial Counselor, Embassy of the Czech Republic in Accra.