Mr John Kumah, Deputy Finance Minister, has indicated unequivocally that recent loans approved by Parliament were previously contracted in their books and simply required parliamentary approval..
In a statement to the parliamentary press corps, he stated that the government will not seek further borrowing facilities.
He noted that the approval included the EIB’s 170 million euro credit facility, which was unlend to DBG, as well as some allocations they made that required legislative approval.
“These are not new loans or new facilities. These are loans already on our books and required parliamentary approval but we were unable to approve them before we rose the last time. One of them is the World Bank International Development Association Support for our public sector reforms and the digitilisation agenda of the government they are supporting with some facilities.”
“We also had to reallocate some funds from the Afri-EXIM Bank, the $750 million we took last year. We needed to reallocate some of the funds to some more priority projects of the government. So these are not new loans, these are some of the reallocations we did and to approve the already made available funds to Ghana by which parliament had not been able to approve.”
Background
Parliament on Tuesday, May 2, 2023, held an emergency sitting in which seven loan agreements were approved.
The approved loans included $60.6 million for the Ghana Covid-19 Emergency Preparedness and Response Project, $150 million for the West Africa Food Systems Resilience Programme and €EU170 million to establish the Development Bank of Ghana (DBG).
There was also $30 million to finance the Medical Equipment Provision Project in response to Covid-19, $150 million to finance the Primary Healthcare Investment Project and $150 million to finance the Public Financial Management for Service Delivery Programme.
The House also approved $200 million loan agreement with the World Bank geared towards financing the Ghana Digital Acceleration Project.
The project is to help the government increase access to broadband, enhance the efficiency and quality of selected digital public services, and strengthen the digital innovation ecosystem in Ghana to help create better jobs and economic opportunities.
The approved Ghana Digital Acceleration Project will support a regulatory shift to create an enabling environment for digital inclusion and innovation; streamline governance and delivery of public services; and facilitate smallholder engagement in data-driven digital agriculture.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
