The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta on Monday, March 30, 2020 in parliament while presenting the impact of Codvid-19 pandemic on the economy of Ghana mentioned that the attack of the virus on small and big businesses may take these businesses another two years to recover if bold interventions are not taken.
He added that most small and medium scale enterprises (SME) rely on social interactions to be able to function. He also stated some social interactions that support SMEs which include hotels, restaurants, drinking bars, chop bars, retail shops, builders, commercial drivers, head porters and street hawkers.
He further stated that the Bank of Ghana has announced a number of measures to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. These measures he mentioned as a 150 basis point drop in the policy rate to fourteen percent (14%) and a reduction in the required reserve requirement from ten percent to eight percent (10% to 8%).
In presenting the potential impact of COVID-19 on Ghana’s economy, he gave a statistics one hundred and fifty-two (152) recorded cases, five (5) deaths, two (2) recovered cases, one hundred and forty-five (145) active cases and a total number of deaths per one million (1,000,0000) population is 0.2.
The Minister further mentioned that president Akuffo Addo has stated five (5) key objectives government is aiming at achieving in the fight to curb the coronavirus pandemic and to halt the importation of the virus.
He mentioned the governments’ objectives as; contain its spread, provide adequate care for the sick, limit the impact of the virus on social and economic life and inspire the expansion of our domestic capability and deepen our self-reliance.
He also added that the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 on the economy is directly through the effects of the pandemic on production, trade and investment within Ghana and between Ghana and the rest of the world (especially China, Europe and the United States), on global commodity prices, on tourist flows, fiscal stance and on human life most importantly health and life of the most vulnerable.
He continued by saying, indirectly, COVID-19 will affect socio-economic growth through slowing of global economic growth, supply chain disruptions and by extension, the negative impact on Ghana’s own growth.
