Cooked meals during 21-day lockdown was ¢54.3m – Ofori-Atta reveals

The Akufo-Addo government spent an amount of ¢54.3 million on cooked meals distributed during the 21-day lockdown in the Greater Accra region and the Ashanti region. 

This was disclosed during the presentation of the 2020 mid-year budget review in Parliament today, Thursday, July 23, 2020 by the Finance Minister.

According to Ken Ofori-Atta, the Gender Ministry provided 1,827,581 packed hot meals while the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) gave out 917,142 packs to the old and less privileged persons in the affected areas during the period.

“In collaboration with Faith-Based Organizations, government also distributed dry food packages to about 470,000 families. Let me extend my deepest gratitude to the Faith-based organisations for this unique partnership with government and may the Lord count this as righteousness for the FBOs and government,” he said.

He added, ”Mr Speaker, the support to households, in terms of supply of dry food packs and hot cooked meals cost Government ¢54.3 million to enable them to mitigate the impact of the pandemic. This was in addition to an amount of ¢50.2 million transferred to the 400,000 most-vulnerable individuals under the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) Programme”.

Gov’t to pay laid off workers temporary incomes

Ken Ofori-Atta, further said that a temporary financial relief programme for persons who lost their jobs as a result of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

“Government will inject liquidity into the system to ease cash flow difficulties of businesses and protect workers by honouring obligations to contractors and suppliers in a timely manner…Government, through the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations (MELR), will collaborate with the Social Partners (Labour and Employers) to establish a National Unemployment Insurance Scheme.

“The scheme will provide temporary income support to workers that are laid off and also provide them access to re-training to help them take advantage of employment opportunities in new fields,” Mr Ofori-Atta said.

Mr Ofori-Atta added that “the good people of Ghana and indeed, the world, recognize that the President was swift to respond with a US$100M preparedness plan and has since shown bold, decisive and compassionate leadership in navigating this uncertainty with calm and calming authority.

“Under his leadership, we have instituted a comprehensive emergency plan that is sharply focused on saving lives and livelihoods, averting economic collapse, building resilience and strengthening the pillars of the economic system for a new normal…that is why since 2017 we have spent a total GHȼ900,531,258.00 in keeping nearly 100,000 trainee teachers and trainee nurses in training.

“For us governance is all about the wellbeing of the people we have been elected to serve. Ours is the government for the ordinary people of Ghana.”