Ghana received a sum of US$430 million to fight the novel Coronavirus, World Bank Country Director, Pierre Frank Laporte has revealed.
According to him, the money was initially directed at the various campaigns that sought to inform and educate Ghanaians on the safety protocols of COVID-19.
Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express, Laporte said, “we’ve provided US$430 million to Ghana to fight COVID-19. And this includes different activities including initially the communication campaign, the sensitization campaign, equipping labs, equipping new facilities to receive patients, to treat patients.”
He added, Ghana received an additional US$130 million from the World Bank which was purposely for the purchase of vaccines.
While the World Bank was actively supporting Ghana’s fight against the novel Coronavirus, it also set into motion several projects to enable the country’s economy to stay afloat.
Pierre Frank Laporte indicated that, these projects were targeted at Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) which are the backbone of Ghana’s economy.
He explained, the World Bank also accelerated the disbursement of projects like the Ghana Economic Transformation projects which targeted SMEs in particular.
“The Tourism project that was suffering from other places before COVID-19. The Minister has done an excellent job in pushing these activities forward, helping a lot of small businesses,” he said.
He noted, the World Bank was further accelerating the disbursement of its social protection project while approving US$100 million more to support the project.
“So, a lot of things are happening. We’re hoping that the Development Bank, the Development Finance will also get resources for small businesses so a lot happened that we’ve done,” Pierre Frank Laporte stressed.
Laporte revealed further on the show that, Ghana could receive a further US$60 million to help in its continuous fight against COVID-19.
“You see the Omicron variant has reminded us of something that we should never think that COVID will just go away like that. It may go away, it may not. At this point in time, we’re discussing a further tranche of support for COVID-19.
“If all goes well it should be available early March. We’re looking at US$60million dollars, which 20 will go directly for more vaccines and the 40 for additional treatment centres,” he said.