The Former Minister of Finance and Economic Planning of Ghana, Mr Seth Emmanuel Terkper has stated that borrowing from the Heritage Fund to fight covid-19 is not appropriate.
This follows government’s proposal to borrow from the Heritage Fund to finance Ghana’s collective fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking on the matter on Atinka TV’s flagship morning show, Ghana Nie, Mr Seth Terpker said borrowing from the heritage fund will mean that the purpose for which it was created might not materialize and therefore must be reserved for its rightful purposes.
“I disagree with that suggestion. I even wrote three years back when they said they were going to take the heritage fund for Free SHS. Because the fund has a purpose and if we do not persist, if we are not patient and we are not persistent, we can never use it for its purposes. If we had taken the heritage fund three years ago, when we said we were raising money for Free SHS, now we are in a severer crisis, would we have had the heritage fund to depend on?” he said.
Seth Terkper advised that the government save enough when times are good and then it can draw when times are bad.
“If you want to be like the advanced countries, you save. when times were good and you did not save to increase the Stabilisation Fund, to replace the contingency fund, how do you come in crisis to say you want to sweep all those monies?” he quizzed.
“Let us us learn from this crisis; it will be over. The times will be good… as Ghanaians, let us persist in the way we say we are managing our oil revenue. What if we had 500 million, Let us say that when this crisis is over as Ghanaians, we will be able to withdraw 500 or 750 million or even 1 billion US Dollars. If we are able to withdraw one billion dollars as severe as covid-19 is, that means we will not go to the IMF; because we are generating that one billion ourselves.”
Ghana| Atinkaonline.com| Porcia Oforiwaa Ofori