Minister of Information Kojo Oppong Nkrumah says Ghana’s success in combating the spread of Covid-19 was as a result of drastic measures put in place by the government to safeguard the citizenry against the deadly virus.

According to him, Government’s intervention in the fight of the pandemic include limiting the importation of the virus into the country, contain the spread within the Ghanaian ecosystem, creating adequate awareness and care for the sick, limit the impact of the virus on the social and economic life of the Ghanaian, and take advantage of the opportunity that Covid-19 may bring to expand domestic capability and deepen self-reliance.

Mr.  Nkrumah cited that the country was able to educate Ghanaians on the safety protocols, which are to be observed during the pandemic, by engaging the various agencies responsible for information dissemination as well as the health sectors with the view of recruiting them as collaborators in the education exercise.

The Information Minister echoed this while in discussions on a multi-stakeholder engagement to scale-up and strengthen efforts to fighting Covid-19 in Ghana by the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) in partnership with STAR-Ghana Foundation.

The virtual engagement held yesterday was dubbed: “Sharing lessons promoting collaboration and visioning a future with Covid-19.”

 Mr. Nkrumah said: “These interventions have helped to ease the restrictions in the country as secondary and tertiary institutions are opening with all protocols being observed as well as normalizing the living capacities of the people.”

He cited as Government intervention including investing in the testing capacities across the 16 regions of the country by providing machinery, logistic for laboratory testing, providing a human resource for efficiency, ensuring a direct stakeholder engagement between political parties, Civil Society Organization and traditional rulers with the aim of achieving a common goal of fighting this pandemic, provision of free water and electricity for some category of consumers, supporting small businesses that may have been badly hit among others.

Mr. Senyo Hosi representing the private sector gave an account of how the sector has and continue to support the government in the fight against the pandemic in the country.

Mr. Hosi said the private sector started the Ghana Covi-19 Private Sector fund to provide a prompt response to the hardship and suffering arising out of the pandemic since March 2020 when the country begun to record cases.

“Through the fund, the private sector has constructed Ghana’s first 100-bed Infectious Disease Facility Center in Accra to house the first batch of critically ill Covid-19 patients for treatment. In addition to its support, the fund also fed the underprivileged during the lockdown in the country as well as feeding the front-line health workers.”

Alhaji Amidu Ibrahim-Tanko of STAR-Ghana Foundation shed light on some of the successes Civil Society Organisations in the country chalked together with the private sector and the role the media played in providing critical information on COVID-19.

In his submission, Mr. Tanko said the operations of Civil Societies had been heavily affected by the pandemic, as support from donor organizations has regrettable declined and repurposed.

He also called for local philanthropy to support Civil Societies as a way of sustaining their future.

Mr. Tanko reiterated that in April 2020, STAR-Ghana Foundation had initiated its coordinated response programme to complement and deepen planned and ongoing efforts of the Civil Society sector.

The project christened as the ‘Ghana Covid-19 Response Project’ (CRP) with its aim of supporting and coordinating Civil Society actions around Covid-19 prevention, management, and mitigation.

Other stakeholders involved in the conversation included a representatives from the Ghana Health Service and the Ministry of Gender and Social Protection, who shared their experiences as far as their response in combatting Covid-19 is concerned.

The two hour virtual meeting objective was to provide an enabling environment of stakeholders across the various sectors to share lessons and experiences from their respective COVID-19 responses in Ghana.

By Mawuena Agede