Support government – Ofori-Atta to FBOs

The Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori Atta has called on the Faith Based Organizations (FBOs) in the country to join hands and support government to realize the change needed for the total growth and transformation of the country.

According to him, their revered organizations have a huge role to play in the moral and spiritual growth of the country and so there was the need for them to use their platforms to drum home the virtues needed for change in attitude.

He made this call when the Ministry of Finance held a meeting with the leadership of faith based organizations as part of stakeholder engagement towards the preparations of the 2020 Budget Statement and Economic Policy. FBOs represented at the meeting included the leadership of Orthodox, Charismatic, Pentecostal and Muslim Community.

Such engagements, the Minister noted, afforded the two parties the platform to dialogue on issues of national interest such as taxation of some activities of churches, how to harness resources of FBOs to ensure value for money for government social intervention policies and ensuring equitable distribution of national resources through the nationwide networks of FBOs.

He acknowledged the enormous roles these FBOs continue to play in the area of education, health, philanthropism among others to improve the standard of people in our communities and assured them of Government’s support.

“Please use your platform to propagate the Ghana Beyond Aid Agenda and help transform the mindset of the citizen on the need to pay their required financial obligation” he advised.

A number of the FBOs commended the Minister for the invitation to dialogue with them on the need to formalize the relationship between them and government for greater impact on the economy.

An appeal was made to government to consider expanding and rehabilitating health and educational facilities established by the churches in the communities rather than building new ones at huge cost to the nation.

Going forward the meeting agreed to among other things to set up a committee to work out modalities to formalize the relationship between them and the Ministry and to plan to officially launch the collaboration.