Parliament approves US$1.5 billion loan for education infrastructure

Parliament has approved a loan of US$1.5 billion for the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to support the development of educational infrastructure.

This came despite objections raised by the Minority. They insisted that they could not back the loan agreement because they were not aware of the lender of the facility.

But this was discounted by Dr. Anthony Osei Akoto, Minister of Monitoring and Evaluation, who said the minority members had been informed about the lender.

He went ahead to announce to the House who the lender was – CAL Bank.

“Mr Speaker, let us be honest with ourselves, other than that, we will be setting examples that we cannot continue to follow” he added.

Earlier, Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah, Chairman of the Finance Committee, said the request for parliamentary approval was to enable GETFund to undertake critical educational infrastructure projects.

He added that the arrangement was that a portion of GETFund revenue would be used to service the loan facility.

He said the successful implementation of all the planned projects under the loan facility would bring an end to the Double Track System introduced in the Senior High Schools to accommodate the increasing students’ admission.

When the question was put to vote by Mr Joseph Osei-Owusu, the First Deputy Speaker, the minority abstained but that did not stop the majority from going ahead to approve the facility.