The social intervention programmes in Ghana are going to be protected by the $3 billion bailout that has been approved by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Mission Chief for Ghana Stéphane Roudet, has said.
Concerns were raised that the social interventions such as the free senior high school, school feeding programme and the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEPA) were going to be affected by the bailout.
But Mr Roudet said during a joint Ghana -IMF press conference in Washington on Thursday, May 18 that “Ensuring adequate social protection is key objective of the programme. The 2023 budget has already taken important steps not only to protect but to bolster support for the vulnerable.”
Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta also made the same point that the social intervention programmes will not be touched.
“We protecting the vulnerable is very clear in the programme. We are doubling the LEAP programme to ensure the welfare support continues, we should not worry at all,” he said.
He further indicated that there is no rush on the part of the government to return to the international capital market to borrow following the coming on board the $ 3 billion bailout.
When asked a question about Ghana returning to the capital market Mr Ofpri-Atta said said that “In addition to the revenue measures that we saw in the budget that are improving at GRA and that will give us the resource to move forward, curtailing and managing our expenditures are going to be important.
“There is no rush in going back to the international capital market, our expectation is that in managing our expenditure and increasing our revenue we will have the resources to do it, working towards the capital market is important because we don’t get our ratings up and make the country more attractive for investors, especially FDIs. So no we is rushing to the capital market at this juncture.”