The Finance Ministry signed an MoU with the World Bank on July, 13, 2021
• The World Bank has given Ghana another US$200 million to control the spread of the coronavirus pandemic
• The Finance Ministry signed an MoU with World bank on July, 13, 2021
• April 2020 was when Ghana received the first loan of 100 million dollars
The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic has over the past year, compelled developing and low middle-income countries to seek help and support with funding from multinational stakeholders across the world, to help in the fight.
Ghana is one of the few countries across the world that received funding from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to curb the menace.
Even though these funds came as a support package, it is a long-term loan facility given to the countries, like Ghana, to be paid later.
Meanwhile, the government of Ghana put in place local sources to raise funds to help address the pandemic. Several donations from banks, private citizens, and other stakeholders were pumped into the CO VID-19 National Trust Fund.
Although there is no specific figure as to how much has been exactly accrued till date, quite a huge sum of money has been raised including some 1 billion dollars’ interest free loan approved by IMF to Ghana, all in the bid to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.
But, how often has Ghana gone to the World Bank to access funds towards fighting this global challenge.
Here are the amounts received by Ghana during the four times it has been to the global bank:
a. US$100 million from the World Bank (including US$65 million from the ongoing Greater Accra Resilient & Integrated Development (GARID) Project,
b. US$35 million from the Fast-Track COVID-19 Facility,
c. US$130 million Additional Financing from the World Bank in April and November 2020 respectively to support the implementation of the COVID-19 Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan.
d. Today, Ghana signed a financing agreement worth Two Hundred Million United States Dollars (US$200.00 million) between the Republic of Ghana and the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank Group, detailed as the Second Additional Financing for the Ghana COVID-19 Emergency Preparedness and Response Project (COVID-19 AF 2).
The objective of the project is to prevent, detect, and respond to the threat posed by COVID-19, as well as strengthen national systems for public health preparedness across the country.
According to the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, “this Second Additional Financing of US$200.00 million being signed today July 13, 2021, will bring the COVID-19 support from the World Bank to US$430.00 million. The funds will continue to go a long way towards implementing a robust COVID-19 vaccination programme, strengthen the health system for large scale vaccines deployment and widen both the scale and scope of ongoing social welfare protection programmes.”