Govt announces coronavirus alleviation programme

President Akufo-Addo has directed the Finance minister to prepare for approval by parliament a coronavirus alleviation programme to address the disruption in economic activities following the scourge of the covid-19 pandemic.

To this end, the Finance Minister is required to make available a minimum of 1 billion cedis to households and business, particularly small and medium scale entreprises, President Akufo-Addo disclosed this in a national broadcast late Friday.

He stressed:”As a responsive government we continue to implement bold measures to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus on businesses and housing and ensure that job losses are minimized.”

Meanwhile, the commercial banks are in addition responding to the Bank of Ghana’s 1.5% decrease in the policy rate.

Also President Akufo-Addo emphasized 2% in reserve requirement with a 3 billion cedi facility to support Industry, especially in the pharmaceutical, hospitality, service and manufacturing sectors.

“We’re providing additional relief such as extension of the tax filing day from April to June, a 2% reduction of interest rates by banks effective 1st April, 2020, the granting by the banks of the 6 months moratorium, a principal repayment to entities in the Airline and hospitality industries, i.e hotels, restaurants, car rentals, food vendors, taxis and uber operators.”

Lockdown begins Monday dawn

This comes after the President ordered for a lockdown in Accra and Kumasi Metropolis following a spike in cases of the covid-19 pandemic.

The directive will affect Accra, Kumasi, Tema, Kasoa among others, declared by the Ghana Health Service(GHS) as the hotspots of the pandemic in the country.

Essential workers have been exempted from the temporary measures announced by the President as the lockdown takes effect Monday dawn.

Ghana’s confirmed cases has scaled up to 137 with four deaths.