Gov’t announces three-year GHc 100 billion economic recovery programme

Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has announced a three-year economic recovery programme to revitalise Ghana’s economy after the destructions of COVID-19.

To be known as the Ghana Coronavirus Revitalisation of Enterprises Programme,  the minister describes it as an unprecedented policy that would “anchor the comprehensive transformation of our society.”

It is expected to cost the public purse  GHc 100 billion.

He, therefore, requested supplementary funding to ” prioritise saving lives and livelihoods, supporting businesses to ensure that the bulk of Ghanaians and their jobs are secured in these challenging times.”

“The Ghana CARES Obatanpa programme is an unprecedented, bold and audacious GHȼ100 bilion programme for us to re-imagine and re-envision our future like never
before,”  he said.

It will run in two phases–a Stabilisation Phase that runs from July to the end
2020  and a medium-term Revitalisation Phase is expected to accelerate the Ghana
Beyond Aid transformation agenda.

The stabilisation phase of CARES will ensure food security, protect businesses and worker incomes, strengthen the health system, attract private investments and support Ghanaian businesses.

Post-coronavirus, the economy has seen a marked reduction in economic growth from 6.9% to 0.9%.

A wide range of businesses from aviation to hospitality and agribusinesses have been crying for bail-outs while TUC puts the job losses at half a million.

With all eyes on the government’s mid-year supplementary budget statement, the Finance Minister strode into parliament to seek extra funding as the 2020 budget he presented last year goes out of gear.

Even before the statement Thursday, the government’s big expenses and dwindling revenue sources meant the fiscal deficit was set to increase beyond the lawful cap of not more than 5%.

But analysts general accept that in a time of a pandemic, its not an economic sin to see the deficit widen.

With coronavirus expected to widen Ghana’s fiscal deficit, the government is expected to turn to its foreign partners for loans.

In the last four months, the government raised GHc 20 billion for the COVID-19 from sources, including GHc 10 billion cedis from the Bank of Ghana; $1 billion from the International Monetary Fund; $100 million from the World Bank and $200 million from the Stabilisation Fund.

With economists and financial analysts taking a grim view of the future of global economies, the Finance Minister was more optimistic.

“I believe we must not waste this pandemic. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity to really effect and deliver an enduring transformational change. We are called
upon to remove the unspoken limits on our ambitions and critically examine all the boundaries we imposed on ourselves,” he said.