Finance Minister, Hon. ken Ofori-Atta has provided to Ghana’s Parliament, details of the GHC18 billion the government utilized during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Hon. Ofori-Atta, the government was able to mobilize GHC18.19 billion out of GHC19.3 billion the government expected to be able to take on the pandemic.
In all, The World Bank provided over $400 million to Ghana to assist the country in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. This $400 million was made available to Ghana as short, medium, and long-term support.
The financing package included $35 million in emergency support to help the country provide improved response systems. Under this emergency package, the World Bank provided support to the Government of Ghana to help prevent, detect, and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic through the Ghana Emergency Preparedness and Response Project (EPRP). The EPRP helped to strengthen Ghana’s National Laboratories by providing robust systems for the early detection of COVID-19 cases and providing real-time disease surveillance and reporting systems of outbreaks.
The government of Ghana also put in place two key initiatives to provide relief to local businesses during the pandemic — the Coronavirus Alleviation Programme Business Support Scheme (CAPBuSS) and Ghana COVID-19 Alleviation and Revitalization of Enterprises Support (CARES) Obaatanpa Programme.
The government established the GHS100 billion CARES program to mitigate the pandemic’s impact on Ghanaians’ lives and livelihoods, to ensure that Ghanaians quickly emerged from the pandemic stronger, and also to ensure a more resilient economy post the pandemic.
CAPBuSS — established with GH¢600.0 million — was to specifically support micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) by H. E. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on 19th May 2020. The Scheme was part of the GH¢1.2 billion CAP approved by Parliament to address the disruption to economic activities due to the pandemic. Under the Scheme, Government, through the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), and in collaboration with the business and trade associations and selected commercial and rural banks, rolled out a soft loan scheme with a one-year moratorium and two-year repayment period for MSMEs. The objectives of the Scheme were to provide emergency relief funds to MSMEs and entrepreneurs in Ghana, establish a comprehensive and financially sustainable emergency relief fund package system for MSMEs, and provide them with technical assistance to ameliorate the impact of COVID-19.
Before the first case of COVID-19 in Ghana was confirmed on 12th March 2020, the Government had proactively put together the GH¢560 million National Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan (EPRP) for COVID-19 to manage and contain the spread of the virus and strengthen the national capacity for surveillance, diagnosis, and case management.
