Covid-19: Ghana’s Parliament Divided over $700,000 Approved for Patients
According to the minority in parliament, the said amount is not enough to cater for the covid-19 patients
Jonas Danquah 
The majority in Parliament have come under criticism for the approval of an amount of $700,000 for Covid-19 patients, as part of a $35 million World Bank loan.
The minority have bemoaned that, the amount earmarked, is not enough for the purpose intended.
The $700,000 amount will be used to provide support for the families of those who are isolated or quarantined.
The support, according to a report of the Finance Committee of Parliament, will include psychological counselling, food baskets and feeding during isolation, quarantine and treatment period.
It will also include fee waivers to access medical care and cash transfers to mitigate the loss of household income due to job losses that may result from the closure of firms, enterprises, informal businesses, and government agencies during the Covid-19 outbreak.
Deputy Minority Leader, James Avedzi however told the media in a briefing at Parliament House that, the amount is not enough.
“We all know there are many people at home. You are budgeting only about GH¢4 million. Why have you allocated only US$700,000 to support households whilst investing over $7million to contact tracing,” Mr. Avedzi said.
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The US$35 million loan is part of a $100 million facility for the Ghana Covid-19 Emergency Preparedness and Response Project.
The Finance Committee’s report says the rest of the $65 million will come from the Contingency Emergency Response Component of the existing World Bank-supported Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development (GARID) project.
The $35 million from the International Development Association of the World Bank Group has a 33.23% grant component.
It is coming at an interest rate of 1.25% per annum, a service charge of 0.75% per annum plus a maximum commitment charge of 0.5% per annum. There will be a five-year grace period before payment begins. The repayment period is 25 years.
