An Economist, Dr. Adu Owusu Sarkodie is advising government to focus and pump more money in to the health sector in the wake of the Coronavirus (COVID 19) pandemic.
According to Dr. Sarkodie, every country has thrown away its 2020 budget and focusing on the health sector.
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“Our health and safety is now being prioritized over everything. Government must spend heavily in the health sector as we fight the coronavirus outbreak,” he told Samuel Eshun, in an interview on the Happy Morning Show (HMS).
He asserted that “We are in a very critical situation and a critical situation requires critical measures. If not, people will prefer to die from coronavirus than from hunger, so government must again act quickly by raising aggregate demand which will not cause inflation. But if we don’t take care, it’ll become the habit of the government”.
He, therefore, urged government to totally shut the borders of Ghana, and forget about the economic implications.
Already, President Akufo-Addo in an address last week said he has directed the finance minister to make $100m funds available to respond to the deadly virus.
The amount, according to the President “is to fund the expansion of infrastructure, purchase of materials and equipment, and public education”.
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But briefing Parliament about the fiscal impact of Covid-19 which has crushed the international capital market, Mr. Ofori-Atta disclosed Ghana do not have such amount but has applied to the World Bank to tap into a $12 billion fast track Covid-19 facility and the IMF $10 billion facility to address the deadly virus.
According to the minister, the government will augment allocations from the two institutions with local resources.
