Senior Minister speaks on HIPC

Mr Joseph Henry Mensah, Senior Minister and Chairman of the Government's Economic Management Team, on Saturday said agreement was about to be reached to give Ghana the lease from paying a substantial part of its debts under the HIPC Initiative.

He indicated that there could be delays as a result of the postponement of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) board meeting in Washington and the task of clearing penalties for misreporting to the IMF, which was concluded on February four, this year.

Mr. Mensah was speaking to journalists on what to expect in the coming budget when he attended a pre-budget seminar for committee chairpersons and ranking members of Parliament at Ho.

Mr Mensah said, whatever happens, the country would "soon start enjoying the benefits of debt cancellations under HIPC". After the IMF Board meets on the issue, Ghana would go into negotiations with creditors, "and there would be some bilateral talks too."

The Senior Minister said relieves of 70 per cent and in some cases up to 100 per cent were expected from those negotiations, which would come on between April and May.

Mr Mensah, who parried questions on the budget and light heartedly referred journalists to the Finance Minister or wait for the Budget day, however, hinted that "there would be a lot of movement in the area of agriculture" where the thrust would be to develop new types of commercial farmers.

He also promised "a lot of action to reverse the spate of losses in the poultry sector in recent years, when the high cost of inputs made birds bred locally expensive and "knocked out hatcheries". Mr Mensah, however, declined to say if some subsidy would be introduced in the budget or not.

He also declined to comment on new revenue generation strategies and whether personal emoluments would be raised, saying only that the government needed a lot of money to undertake development projects and that if one wanted a higher income he should put in additional effort.

Mr Mensah said poverty alleviation grants to various groups were in place and yielding results though people had described the amounts being given out as ridiculous.

He said loan recovery so far had been satisfactory. Pressed to say if the budget would put a smile or a frown on the faces of Ghanaians, Mr. Mensah said, "it would make everybody happy". He hinted that the budget day slated for Friday February 22, this year could be shifted if the day fell on the impending Moslem holiday.