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The Minister of Finance, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta
The government has projected to spend GH ¢ 27.4 billion in the first three months of next year.
The amount will be used to manage the country between January and March 2021, pending the presentation of a full budget later that quarter.
It will fund key spending items such as debt service, public sector employee compensation and the activities of key government agencies before a full budget for the year is drawn up in March.
Of the amount projected for the period, GH ¢ 3.77 billion will be spent on settlement of arrears and amortization of debts, while the rest will be spent on compensation of employees and other critical expenses.
Budget presentation
Finance Minister Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta revealed this in Parliament yesterday when he asked the House to approve the Expenditures before Appropriation for next year.
The presentation is a provision for the smooth running of government affairs during the first three months after an electoral cycle.
It is in line with Section 23 of the Public Finance Management Act (PFM), 2016 (Law 921), which requires the government to prepare a budget for the first three months of a new financial year prior to an election year.
The minister said total revenues and donations were projected to reach GH ¢ 13.3 billion in the first three months of the year.
He said that would result in a projected fiscal deficit of GH ¢ 10.7 billion for the period.
Funding source
To finance the projected spending, Mr. Ofori-Atta asked Parliament to also approve the issuance of sovereign bonds for $ 3 billion, with the option to increase it to $ 5 billion if market conditions turn out to be favorable.
“To support the 2021 budget and liability management, we plan to raise funds from the international capital market. This will include the issuance of sovereign bonds for $ 3 billion, with the option to increase it to $ 5 billion if market conditions turn out to be favorable, ”he said.
Of the amount, he said, $ 1.5 billion would be used to support the 2021 budget and $ 3.5 billion for liability management.
The issuance of the $ 5 billion Eurobond will be the highest amount ever requested by the ministry since the country issued its first international bond in 2007.
use
Giving an idea of how the projected amount would be spent, the minister said that the entire ¢ 27.4 billion GH would cover government operations, such as workers’ compensation, ex gratia awards, interest payments and amortizations, transfers to legal funds, critical programs, goods and services and capital expenditure allocations to ministries, departments and agencies (MDA).
He said programs that will benefit from the estimated spending included work on the proposed 111 district and regional hospitals, dubbed Agenda 111, which began this year.
“Currently, the district assemblies have submitted 88 site plans and contractors and consultants are being procured,” he said.
Jobs
Mr Ofi-Atta added that, in support of the government’s commitment to vocational and technical education and training (TVET), the Jobs and Skills program would start next year to support learning and development of training-based curricula. In skills in more than 100 commercial and entrepreneurship areas. .
“In addition, we will see the start of construction of our flagship state-of-the-art TVET centers (two per region), fully equipped with modern training facilities, in 33 trades / professions in 11 economic sectors,” he said.
Investment in infrastructure
The finance minister said that the coming year will see significant investments in infrastructure, especially in affordable housing.
He said the interventions would create more jobs and improve craft skills.
He said the 204 new homes in the Tema 22 Community were the beginning of bigger things to happen in the housing sector.
He said the homes were built and supervised largely by local contractors and consultants under the National Housing and Mortgage Fund Scheme (NMHFS).
“This project was completed in nine months, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and created more than 1,500 jobs,” he said.
“We will replicate this housing model across the country and in conjunction with the Agenda 111 district hospital program,” added Mr. Ofori-Atta.
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