GH¢17.7bn (4.6% of GDP) spent to contain pandemic – Akufo-Addo

President Nana Akufo-Addo has said his government, since 2020, spent GH¢17.7 billion, representing 4.6% of Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

Presenting the State of the Nation Address to parliament on Wednesday, 30 March 2022, the President said: “Mr Speaker, we have saved lives and fared much better than we had feared and the experts predicted, but the consequences of lockdowns, border and business closures, and unplanned expenditures have combined to have a devastating impact on our economy”.

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The unplanned expenditures, according to the President, “included but were not limited to the recruitment, on a permanent basis, of fifty-eight thousand, one hundred and ninety-one (58,191) healthcare professionals, and the payment of extra incentives to our frontline health workers”.

“It took an unbudgeted GH¢1.9 billion to ensure that our children and teaching staff went back and stayed in school safely”, he said.

“Some, including a few in this Honourable House, went as far as to accuse the government of trying to kill Ghanaian children when we introduced the controlled school re-openings”, he recalled.

“I might add here that, in some countries, school closures have lasted for twenty (20) months, and children are only now going back to school. Our children did not lose a single academic year”, the President noted.

He said: “We provided nearly five million (5 million) households and over ten million (10 million) people with electricity and water subsidies at the time they were most needed”.

“In all, data from the Ministry of Finance tells us that an amount of GH¢17.7 billion (or 4.6% of GDP) has been spent in containing the pandemic since 2020”.