Dr. Nii Moi Thompson, a renowned economist, disclosed that the COVID-19 pandemic unexpectedly boosted the Akufo-Addo government’s finances.
Ghana received a $1 billion grant from the IMF and an additional $1 billion in 2021, the latter not mentioned in the Auditor General’s report on COVID-19 expenditures.
Speaking in an interview with Bernard Avle on Channel One TV’s The Point of View, he speculated that there may have been an overlook in the Auditor General’s report about the $1 billion that was given to Ghana in 2021.
Dr. Moi Thompson went on to say that although Ghana got GHC27 billion in COVID-19-related funding, only 42% of this sum was really spent on COVID-19-related costs, meaning a large portion went unaccounted for.
He said:
“We turn to look at COVID-19 purely in economic terms, but it was a financial bonanza for the government. You may recall that they actually even said that they exceeded the revenue targets in 2020, despite what everyone else thinks. Even though, revenue went down in certain sectors… the ICT, the telcos and others, they boomed.
“But, as a result of COVID-19, the IMF also gave us a billion dollars in cash in 2020, pretty much, no conditions attached. The significance of that is that in 2015 when we went to the IMF, they pledged, I think $940 million spread over three years.
“Contrary to what we got in 2020, it was a billion dollars, go and spend for COVID. There was another billion dollars in 2021, which is critical because it is omitted from the audited general’s report on COVID-19 expenditures… Even though, the Ministry of Finance acknowledges the one billion dollars on its website. But for some reason, it was excluded. Maybe it was an oversight I don’t know. If we include the financial inflows, we got from covid-19 alone it was about GHC27 billion. Out of that, they spent just about 42% on COVID expenditures, the rest, they said went into budget support.”
He questioned why, despite receiving significant IMF funds due to COVID-19, Ghana’s infrastructure funding gaps remain unaddressed.
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