Ghanaian government presents some lessons for other African countries, including the continent’s ‘big brother’ and largest economy, on how to cushion the effect of the rampaging coronavirus on their people and business, especially small scale businesses.
The ‘small’ West Africa country has come up with palliative initiatives that address directly the needs and concerns of average Ghanaians in every part, not some parts, of the country in the face of the virus.
For the next three months, including April, May and June, the Ghana Water Company and the Electricity Company of Ghana will ensure stable supply of water and electricity as directed by the government.
The president of the country, Nana Akufo-Addo, who disclosed this in a national broadcast to the people recently, stated further that all water tankers privately and publicly owned in the country would be mobilised to ensure the supply of water to all vulnerable communities.
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“The government, in collaboration with the National Board for small scale industries, business and trade associations and selected commercial and rural banks will roll out a soft loan scheme up to 600 million Cedis with a one-year moratorium and two-year repayment period for micro, small and medium scale businesses,” the president said.
For a country that is having problems with keeping its citizens at home even with a lockdown and stay-at-home order in place, this is a good and strong lesson to learn from its ‘small brother’ neighbour.
African Union (AU) study estimates that 20 million jobs are at risk in Africa in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic while Nigeria and Angola, sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest oil producers may be losing $65 billion in income.
The continent’s economies are projected to shrink this year due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the AU study, which adds that African oil exporters are expected to see their budget deficits double this year while their economies shrink 3 percent on average.
These projections make Ghana’s proactive decisions to support small businesses instructive because, in any economy, small businesses are the engine of economic growth. There is a lesson to learn here.
In Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna and other places where there is a stay-at-home order in place, many residents have defied the order and moved to the streets because, according to them, there is no food in the house and there is no money to buy one. Additionally, there is no electricity and because of that, there is no water. The situation got so bad in Kaduna that five persons had to pay the supreme sacrifice.
“I think our major problem is electricity. If there is light, you can soak garri and drink with groundnut. If there is light, you can stay indoors, drink your garri and watch television. With that you won’t be bored in the house. But how can you stay indoors without food and there is no light? Kayode Kolawole, an Anglican church priest, queried.
Kolawole wondered why the government had no concrete plan that could keep people in their homes and by so doing help them to curtail the spread of the deadly virus. He wondered too why the politicians could go from house to house to campaign for votes but when it was time for sharing money to the poor, they would send people from Abuja.
“Who do those Abuja people know? They say they have a list of poor people in the country; how did they collect the names of the people on the list; who gave them those names? We are being made to believe that poor people are only in one part of the country; who will believe these shenanigans?” he said.
Worried about the lopsided manner in which the ministry of Humanitarian Services have handled the distribution of federal government’s relief packages, the leadership of the national assembly summoned the minister in charge of the ministry who could not satisfactorily defend what they had done so far.
In the same vein, the Minority Caucus in the House of Representatives has warned that the current selective approach adopted by the Federal Government in allotting palliatives to states in the wake of coronavirus, saying that the approach was unacceptable and counter-productive to the overall national efforts to mitigate the economic impact of the pandemic.
