In Ghana, some measures had been undertaken to manage and contained the spread of the virus in our country. Some of these have been the closure of schools, churches, mosques and other places where hitherto there would be public gatherings. Social distancing and the use of hand sanitizers and washing of hands under running water as well the use of PPE introduced. Our borders and Airports were also shutdown as preventive measures to contain the spread.

Notwithstanding the cases of COVID-19, which started with two persons, kept increasing to over 142 and spreading within communities and across the regions. The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) amongst several other asked the government to lockdown the country to control the rapidly increasing spread of the virus. This has been done for three consecutive weeks amidst contact tracing, testing and case management.

On Sunday 19th April the President however announced the lifting of the lockdown although the recorded cases of COVID-19 in the country has increased to 1042 at the time of his announcement. This has attracted lots of attention over the decision of the Akufo-Addo administration.

The IMF/World Bank are often noted of introducing such anti-social conditionalities to our government in events of difficulty. Once again they have raised issues of economic severity in the Ghana economy and the IMF extended $1 billion credit facility to the country. Again they have frozen over $500million of debt repayment for the Nation. Their position announced that;

On April 13, 2020, the IMF Executive Board approved the disbursement of US$1 billion to be drawn under the Rapid Credit Facility.

The COVID-19 pandemic is already impacting Ghana severely. Growth is slowing down, financial conditions have tightened, and the exchange rate is under pressure.

The authorities have timely and proactively responded to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana and support affected households and firms.

Earlier to this, the World Bank had offered $100million as support to the country for the COVID-19 pandemic.

The President in his last announcement on lifting the lockdown, indicated packages for SMEs (Small Medium Enterprises) and households, which had actually been mentioned earlier when the lockdown was introduced.

The big question here is: Has the Akufo-Addo administration mortgaged the public safety of Ghanaians for IMF/World Bank enticement package under the disguise of financial stimulus in an election year in the face of COVID-19?

Is the NPP choosing electoral prospects over the health and safety of the Ghanaian voter?

If truly the government believes the Coronavirus has been contained why are our schools still closed? Why are we forcing the use of the face masks and undertaking preventive measures?

Indeed the pandemic is far from over and it’s rather unfortunate that the government has taken such premature decision without recourse to the health and safety of the ordinary Ghanaian. This is unacceptable!

Submitted:

Kwadwo Afari-Yeboah

Aspiring for CPP General Secretary