Ghana expected to receive full complement of $100m COVID-19 fund today

Ghana is expected to have full complement of the $100m COVID-19 fund from the World Bank today April 6, 2020.

The money is expected to go into various programmes and activities to fight the pandemic.

The World Bank over the weekend approved the first set of emergency support operation for developing countries around the world using a dedicated fast track facility for COVID-19 response.

The first group of projects amounting to $1.9bn will assist 25 countries including Ghana.

Some $35m of the money has already been released and Minister for Finance Ken Ofori-Atta expects the rest to be paid today April 6, 2020.

“Last Monday some $35m was brought in and today we expect another fund to be released to us and it is possible we may have all the $100m today. In addition, during our analysis, it is quite clear that we are going to lose some GHS9.5bn through petroleum revenues, import duties, domestic taxes etc so we have sought some support form IMF as well and we may have another $1bn to be able to support our lost revenue.”

The World Bank is providing $100 million to Ghana to assist the country in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. This $100 million will be made available to the government and the people of Ghana as short, medium and long-term support.

This financing package includes $35 million in emergency support to help the country provide improved response systems. Under this emergency package the World Bank will support the Government of Ghana to help prevent, detect, and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic through the Ghana Emergency Preparedness and Response Project (EPRP).

The EPRP will help strengthen Ghana’s National Laboratories by providing robust systems for the early detection of COVID-19 cases and providing real time disease surveillance and reporting systems of outbreaks. It will also improve response systems by providing social and financial support and free health services to COVID-19 patients and families who are isolated or quarantined.

Finally, the project will focus on risk communications and community engagement for increased awareness and compliance with prevention measures engaging the Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service, Ministry of Information and other agencies.