Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta will tomorrow, April 8, 2020, present a policy statement to Parliament on matters relating to the government’s measures to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
According to the release issued by Parliament’s Public Affairs, the Speaker Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye, has in accordance with Standing Orders of Parliament directed the resumption of the first meeting of the fourth session of the seventh Parliament on Wednesday 8th April 2020.
It will be recalled that the first meeting of the fourth session commenced on January 28, 2020, and was suspended indefinitely on Saturday, April 4, 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic, with the Speaker explaining that the House could be recalled at any point in time.
The Finance Minister’s presentation will be a follow up on previous statements he has made on the floor of the House following the outbreak of the disease — detailing government’s measures and interventions to fight it.
His presentation will be one of many things the House will address tomorrow following their recall.
The virus has opened up a financing gap of US$11.4billion in government’s 2020 budget.
The World Bank and IMF are jointly providing US$100million to Ghana to assist the country in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ghana’s coronavirus case count has risen sharply to 287, an update by Ghana Health Service late Monday, April 6, 2020, revealed.
The fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic is set to cost Ghana GH₵9.505 billion, according to Ken Ofori-Atta, representing 2.5 percent of Ghana’s revised GDP.
In spite of the dire situation government through the Finance Ministry will be rolling out interventions such as the COVID Care and Revitalisation of Enterprise Programme to support Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Micro-finance institutions and other big industries.
