GHȼ100bn CARES Programme Outdoored

Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Maafo, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta and some government officials at the launch

SENIOR MINISTER Yaw Osafo Maafo recently launched the Ghana Covid-19 Alleviation and Revitalization of Enterprise Support (CARES) initiative in Accra on behalf of President Akufo-Addo.

The Ghana CARES (Obaatan pa) programme is a bold and audacious GHȻ100 billion post Covid-19 programme aimed at stabilizing, revitalizing and transforming Ghana’s economy to create jobs and prosperity for Ghanaians over a three-year period.

It comes in two phases – a Stabilization Phase that spans July to the end of the year (2020); and a medium-term Revitalization Phase from 2021-2023.

The first phase of the programme builds on actions already taken by government under the CARES, some of which include the stabilization of the economy, ensuring food security, supporting businesses and workers, strengthening the health system and the passage of legislations to facilitate quick economic recovery.

The second phase is targeted at revitalizing and transforming the economy from 2021-2023 and will focus on supporting commercial farming and attracting educated youth into agriculture, building Ghana’s light manufacturing sector, developing engineering/machine tools and ICT/digital economy, developing Ghana’s housing and construction industry, as well as reviewing and optimizing the implementation of government flagships and key programmes among others.