Ghana is to receive 7.2 million euros from the European Union to help with the production and export of Bananas. Finance Minister Seth Tekper signed the financing agreement on behalf of the government, while EU Ambassador, Claude Marten initialed on behalf of the EU. The money will be used for the Banana Accompanying Measures Project (BAM). Trade Minister Haruna Iddrisu explained to Joy Business how the project will benefit farmers. "[It is] to improve the livelihood of banana farmers in the Greater Accra, Eastern and Volta regions”, he revealed. The Minister added "it will include expansion of social amenities and basic amenities in that area to encourage them to increase volumes of production". EU Ambassador also revealed that Ghana exports about 50,000 tons of bananas to the European Union. This was a phenomenal increase from a paltry 5,000 bananas in 2005. He said with the introduction of the Most Favourite Nation (MFN) tariff, competition in the banana sector has become keen. With the Most Favoured Nation, all countries are treated equally. Under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreements, countries cannot normally discriminate between their trading partners. A country cannot grant someone a special favour such as a lower customs duty rate for one of their products. The country would have to do the same for all other WTO members. The BAM project was therefore aimed at shoring up Ghana’s ability to compete in exports to EU countries under the MFN tariff. The project is expected to be fully implemented in 36 months.