IMF Fund: LEAP, other government flagship programmes to be doubled – Amin Adam

Minister of State at the Finance Ministry, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam has assured Ghanaians that the current funds obtained from the IMF will be used to support some flagship programmes.

He claims that government was successful in securing very significant social intervention funding in the recent IMF programme.

The Minister, therefore, urged Ghanaians to expect an improvement in some of government’s flagship programmes.

“Some of the socially sensitive programs we have been implementing are going to be supported. LEAP, for example, is going to be doubled and has been doubled in the 2023 budget already.

“The capitation grant is going to double, our School Feeding Programme is going to double as well. In fact, Free Senior High School program has not been interrupted. We’re going to make it more efficient. The National Health Insurance scheme also,” he said on Newsfile on Saturday.

Dr Adam further stated that in order to safeguard the populace from the worst consequences of austerity, the administration has negotiated spending floors in relation to the current IMF programme.

He explained that, “when I talk about spending floor, the minimum that we can spend on social intervention. By June, we should be spending ¢2 billion on social interventions. And by September this year, we should be spending ¢3 billion. By December, we should be spending a cumulative of ¢4 billion.”

“This is different from our normal spending in the sense that sometimes you budget and the relations are not corresponding well with the budget. For now, we have negotiated some minimum savings. Which means that we can even go beyond that. But these are guaranteed spending that we have to do to ensure that the poor in our society are not affected,” Dr Adam stressed.

Eventually, he assured Ghanaians that since government is sensitive to the plight of the citizens, they will ensure that the populace is cushioned and supported in government’s quest to attain the level of economic recovery desired for the country.