President Akufo-Addo
PRESIDENT AKUFO-Addo is billed to launch the Coronavirus Alleviation Programme Business Support (CARES) Scheme this week.
Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, who made this known, was addressing staff of his outfit at its Fourth Quarter Staff Durbar for 2020.
“To the glory of God, the audacious GHȻ100 billion Covid-19 Alleviation and Revitalization of Enterprise support (Ghana CAREs “Obaatanpa” project) will also be launched by His Excellency the President next week,” he noted.
He was also optimistic that the hosting of the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in Ghana with its associated economic benefits, the strengthened financial sector, collaboration with the NBSSI on the Coronavirus Alleviation Programme Business Support Scheme, among others, all pointed to a thriving economy full of opportunities come next year.
Mr. Ofori-Atta therefore urged staff of the ministry not to rest on their oars but to continue to work diligently.
He said the NPP administration’s most difficult task in 2017 was to set Ghana free from an IMF programme, stabilize the macro economy and put it on a trajectory of growth to improve the lives of Ghanaians.
Mr. Ofori-Atta mentioned a number of successes that government had recorded over the four years it had been in power. These included the digitization of revenue to plug leakages and introduction of policies and programmes to improve revenue administration and tax compliance, re-profiling of the country’s debts by extending the maturity of short-term debts, the financial sector clean-up and introduction of expenditure control measures to minimize inefficiency and cost overruns.
The Finance Minister added that owing to sound macroeconomic management the international capital markets reaffirmed their confidence in Ghana’s economic management and these could be witnessed by the unparalleled subscription to Ghana’s sovereign bonds.
“Indeed Ghana became the first ever sub-Saharan country to issue a 41-year bond (US$750 million), raising in total $3 billion in the international capital market,” he stated.
BY Samuel Boadi