Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance, has secured a budget of approximately $750 million for the financing of various government initiatives.
The credit provisions include a $60 million Third Additional Financing from the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank Group for the Ghana COVID-19 Emergency Preparedness Response Project.
Other funding includes $150 million for the West Africa Foo System Resilience Programme Phase 2 under the Multi-Phase Programmatic Approach, $150 million for the Primary Healthcare Investment Project, $150 million for the public financial management for service delivery programme, and $200 million for the Ghana Digital Acceleration.
The remainder consists of €170,000,000.00 from the Development Bank of Ghana (DBG) for the establishment of the Development Bank of Ghana (DBG) and $30,000,000.00 from the Export-Import Bank of Korea for Medical Equipment Provision.
Mr. Kweku Kwarteng, chairman of the Finance Committee, presented to the House the Committee's reports on the various loans and stated that, in light of the enormous benefits to be derived from the projects and their capacity to address pressing challenges and vulnerabilities in the sectors for which they are intended, the Committee recommended that the House adopt the reports and approve the loans by a majority vote.
Dr. John Kumah, Deputy Minister of Finance, explained in an interview that the loans are not new but are already on the government's books and require only parliamentary sanction, which was not granted before the House adjourned sine die.
Therefore, we wish to state for the record that the government is not acquiring new facilities. These are loans for which we have already contracted, and parliamentary approval was required for each. So this is what we wish to document."
The Deputy Minister guaranteed that the sanction will aid the government's efforts to recover the nation from the economic crisis.
Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, leader of the minority, argued that when the nation is in such dire straits, it is a grave error for the government to even contemplate and have the courage to increase the public debt.
He stated that the Minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) was vehemently opposed to the ratification of the approximately $750 million in loan facilities.
According to him, the Majority NPP believed this was the appropriate moment to ambush the NDC by bringing the loans to the House for approval while NDC members of parliament were preparing for their primaries and campaigning heavily.
"They believed this was the best opportunity to present the loans, and they obviously did so and were successful. We objected to that.
"However, we are urging the Ghanaian people to hold this government accountable. All this time, the opposition has done the best it can with the numbers provided by the electorate. However, frequently the impression is fostered that only the opposition should hold this government accountable."
The Minority leader urged civil society organizations and well-intentioned Ghanaians to join them in vehemently opposing the government because the Akufo-Addo administration never learns.