Akufo-Addo has shown compassion in coronavirus fight - Oppong Nkrumah

The Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah says President Akufo-Addo must be applauded for his “compassionate” leadership in the COVID-19 fight.

The Ofoase Ayirebi MP made the comment while contributing to the debate on the Mid-Year budget review presented to the lawmaking chamber by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, last Thursday.

Mr. Oppong Nkrumah noted that it is the responsibility of government to recognize the adverse effect of the coronavirus on Ghanaians and to initiate measures that can ease the pain.

“Any President who has compassion for his people, any President who cares for his people, must put in place a clear and bold recovery program which restores Ghana’s recent economic success, builds a self-reliant economy and improves quality of lives eventually. This bold revitalization program, Ghana Cares, which was announced by the Honourable Minister responsible for Finance on Thursday will mobilize GHC100 billion to reinvest in the Ghanaian economy to bring back growth, lost jobs, incomes and improve on quality of lives.

“Under President Akufo-Addo, Ghana Cares is established to ensure that food security is not hampered. In times like these, with shutdowns and lockdowns, food security is a risk to any economy. You will notice that under this program, attention is paid to ensuring that Agric productivity is restored, food is available and at affordable prices protecting the livelihoods of farmers and rate rest of our population. Under President Akufo-Addo, Ghana cares about peoples businesses. Therefore a key component of this program is to continuously support businesses. Already nearly GH?1 billion is being made available through the CAPBUS loan scheme for MSME,” Mr Oppong Nkrumah noted.

The Minister also noted  that the Guarantee Scheme of up to GH¢2 billion will enable businesses to borrow from banks at more affordable rates and at a longer tenor and will save businesses from collapsing.

“Another GHC2 billion credit line is being made available to medium and large enterprises to stimulate economic activity in these sectors. For those who have lost jobs and unemployment insurance program is to be introduced to assist them protect livelihoods in these tough times. And additionally a chunk of this money will be used to inject liquidity into the Ghanaian economy and stimulate activity across sectors” he said.