A Professor at the University of Ghana, Justice Nonvignon, has stated that calls for the scrapping of the COVID-19 levy may not be necessarily accurate.
According to him, instead of scrapping the levy, it could be designated for other purposes or special programs.
He also explained that Ghana can generate about $6000 from the levy, which can be used to augment the 1 million allocations that the government makes for the health sector.
Speaking at his inaugural lecture on the topic “The Pursuit of Health Amidst Scarcity: Economics, Health and the Romance in-between”, he noted that it is prudent for the government to increase allocations to the health sector whiles ensuring that these monies are properly utilized.
He said: “Why don’t we strengthen that levy and ensure that we can cover other programmes. For instance, I talked about some progrqammes, malaria has been battling us for how long? How much funding do we put there; it will surprise you to know that most of the malaria funding comes from the global fund. The global fund also depends on other funders. Like vaccines, a lot of the vaccines that we purchase especially for children come from other funders.
“So how can we take advantage of the COVID-19 levy? As I said the COVID-19 levy has the potential to raise as much as $600 million dollars a year. Now, 600 million is 60% of the 1 billion we give to the health sector every year, so if we can raise 60 to 70% more, why don’t we painstakingly as citizens support the government and ensure that such a levy is kept?” he opined.
Prof. Novignon expatiated on the direct linkage between the health of citizens and the growth of any economy and noted that it is for this reason that the government must take the health needs of its country seriously.
He said the COVID-19 pandemic was only one out of several health issues that befall the continent, therefore it is necessary that the government always makes adequate preparations in order to combat them.
SSD/OGB
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Prof Justice Novignon speaking at his inaugural lecture