World Bank approves $435 for COVID-19 fight in Ghana
The World Bank has so far approved an amount of $435 million to the government to support the country to combat the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
The concessional loan with low interest rate and to be paid over a period of 40 years would help support existing efforts to combat the pandemic.
Pierre Frank Laporte, the World Bank Country Director in charge of Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, disclosed this in an interaction with the media yesterday on the Bank’s Ghana Emergency Preparedness Response Project Second Additional Financing.
He explained that the bank had already approved $235 million for the country, which among others, was used to procure Personal Protective Equipment, beds, ventilators, printing of communication materials and COVID-19 education campaigns.
“Just last week the World Bank approved an additional $200 million Ghana COVID-19 Emergency Preparedness and Response Project Second Additional Financing to support the fight against the pandemic,” Mr Larporte said.
He said of the latest funding an amount of $130 million would be used to procure COVID-19 vaccines for 13 million people in Ghana.
Mr Laporte indicated that the World Health Organisation had approved Pfizer, Moderna, Astrazeneca, Sinopharm and Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccines and the World Bank would assist Ghana to procure those vaccines.
The World Bank Country Director indicated that the COVID-19 Emergency Preparedness Response Project Second Additional Financing would also strengthen the resilience of Ghana’s health systems to better prepare for the future pandemic and to secure the continuation of essential health and nutrition services, including routine childhood immunisation.
He said the project would enable the country to explore the acquisition of COVID-19 vaccines from a range of sources to support Ghana’s target to vaccinate 17.5 million people in a way that ensured value-for-money, adding that the project would also support an equitable and effective distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in line with Ghana’s National Vaccine Deployment Plan.
“The World Bank is happy to support this additional financing, given the importance of preventing deaths and reduce transmission of COVID-19 among the population by providing access to COVID-19 vaccines towards accelerating economic and social recovery in Ghana,” said Mr Laporte.
He said the World Bank was aware of the continuing difficulties in having access to COVID-19 vaccines and logistics due to the global vaccine market challenges and would work to address the inequity in vaccine supplies that was impacting Ghana and other developing countries.
Mr Laporte said a Project Unit had been set up to oversee the procurement and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and other logistics, stressing that the Unit report to both the World Bank and the Ministry of Health.
Asked how the World Bank COVID-19 financial support to the government had been utilised, the World Bank Country Director indicated that his outfit had not heard of any adverse use of the COVID-19 funds.
