The Ghana CARES ‘Obaatanpa’ programme will require additional public financing of GHC30 billion over the next three years, Ken Ofori-Atta, the Minister for Finance has said.
Presenting the mid-year Budget review in Parliament on Thursday (29 July), Ofori-Atta said, “Since the turn of this year, we have been purposefully pursuing the Phase II of the Ghana CARES programme to revitalise the economy and set it on track for 28 transformations.
“We are emboldened in this course, knowing that the initiatives in the Stabilisation Phase (Phase I) were vital in sustaining the quality of life of our people and the prospects of our economic recovery. Six months on, permit me to highlight the progress made thus far and the work to be accomplished in the remaining part of the year.”
He added, “We have made considerable progress towards our pledge to create a well-lubricated financial ecosystem to anchor wealth-building for our youth under the Ghana CARES programme.
“Under Ghana CARES, we are catalysing the Ghana Commodity Exchange (GCX) this year to be more nimble. This support will strengthen the GCX to play its critical role in reducing post-harvest losses, providing better access to agricultural and financial markets, creating jobs and improving livelihoods for all actors along the agricultural value chain,” he said.
Ofori-Atta added, “Mr Speaker, to provide financial resources for the development and promotion of venture capital financing for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in priority sectors under Ghana CARES, we are supporting the Venture Capital Trust Fund (VCTF) this year.
The support will enable the VCTF to tremendously impact financing for venture capitalists, especially the youth, in Ghana.”
Revenue mobilisation
He said the government is aware of the critical importance of additional revenue to implement the recovery and transformation agenda.
“We are therefore transforming the Ghana Revenue Authority to drive our quest for burden-sharing and sustainable revenue mobilization,” the minister said.
Ofori-Atta said, “This transformation agenda is not just about mobilising more, it is equally about mobilising sustainably with the help of technology.”
He said the government is building robust and integrated data systems under Ghana CARES to advance this cause.
“Mr Speaker, we have also established the Revenue Assurance and Compliance Enforcement (RACE) Initiative to complement the efforts of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA). The remit of RACE is to identify and prevent revenue leakages while reinforcing the culture of compliance nationwide”
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