Parliament
Parliament yesterday approved a raft of loans for various governmental projects after members were recalled from recess to sit on the financial agreements.
The loan agreements adopted by the House included US$30 million from the Republic of Korea, US$60.6 million and US$150 million from the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank Group, and $750 million from the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank).
They are to finance primary healthcare investment, Ghana COVID-19 Emergency Preparedness and Response Project, West Africa Food System Resilience Programme, the establishment of the Development Bank of Ghana and Public Financial Management for Service Delivery Programme.
While the loan agreement from IDA of the World Bank Group will be used to finance the Ghana COVID-19 Emergency Preparedness and Response Project, another loan agreement from the World Bank will go to the financing of the West Africa Food System Resilience Programme — Phase 2 under the Multi-Phase Programmatic Approach.
The House also adopted the report of the Finance Committee on the On-Lending Agreement between the government (represented by the Ministry of Finance) and the Development Bank Ghana (DBG) for an amount of €170 million to support the establishment of a financially sustainable development bank under the Finance Contract Agreement between Ghana and the European Investment Bank.
The lawmakers again backed the modification to the use of proceeds for two selected A road projects under the Loan Facility Agreement between the Ghana and African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) for an amount of up to $750 million to finance Capital and Growth-related Expenditures in the 2022 Budget.
This is the $75 million allocated for the construction of the Ejisu-Konongo road project to be reallocated for the construction of the Suame Interchange and the $98 million for the construction of the Enkyikrom-Adawso road project to be reallocated for the construction of the by-passes on the Accra-Kumasi Road (N6).
MPs also approved two other financial bills which the House was unable to consider before it went for the Easter break.
They are Excise Tax Stamp (Amendment) Bill, 2022 and Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information (Amendment) Bill, 2023.
By Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House