John Jinapor, Member of Parliament for Yapei/Kusawgu, claims information spreading that MPs unanimously approved a loan agreement between the government and the World Bank for an amount of $200 million to finance the Ghana Digital Acceleration Project is false.
He averred it will be unfair for anyone to blame the Minority caucus for the passage of the loan agreement, adding that they vehemently opposed the loan agreement, but the numbers did not favour them.
The ranking member on Parliament’s Mines and Energy Committee, in an interview explained that the loans were approved solely by the Majority. He argued that Ghanaians are faced with economic challenges and passing the loan agreement, will worsen the situation.
“It’s not true that the House unanimously approved those loans. If you look at the committee’s report, it will tell you that it was by Majority decision. The committee’s report will attest to the fact that the Minority side objected. So the Majority carried the day by one single vote. Today, the voice vote clearly indicated that we, the Minority side gave an emphatic no. The Speaker gave it to the Majority side because they have the numbers. If anybody wants to blame the Minority for the insensitivity and incompetence of this government, I think that it will be very unfortunate and unfair.”
John Jinapor
The Deputy Finance Minister, Dr. John Kumah noted that the loans are not new agreements but loans already contracted. “Parliament just approved the agreement between government and Development Bank Ghana. These are not new loans, they are loans we have already taken on in our books. We want to put it on record that these are loans we have already contracted on our books and require Parliamentary approval,” Mr. Kumah claimed.
In response to this, John Jinapor lashed out at the Deputy Finance Minister for being disingenuous with his comment on the loan agreements. “The Deputy Finance Minister was being disingenuous, to say the least. John Kumah should take his time, learn from past experience and move away from this narrative because it will not help him at all,” he asserted.
Parliament’s $200M Loan Facility From World Bank Details
Parliament approved a loan agreement between the government and the World Bank for an amount of $200 million to finance the Ghana Digital Acceleration Project. Moreover, the House also approved an amount of $150 million dollars for the financing of the West Africa Food System Resilience Programme phase 2 under the Multi-phase programmatic approach.
It further approved a loan agreement for an amount of $60.6 million as a third Additional Financing for the Ghana Covid-19 Emergency Preparedness and Response Project.
Parliament also approved an on-lending agreement between the government and the Development Bank Ghana for an amount of £170 million Euros to support the establishment of a financially sustainable development Bank.
Part of the loan agreements approved, is a $150 million dollar facility from the World Bank to finance the primary healthcare investment project and an amount of $150 million dollars to finance the Public Financial Management for Service Delivery Programme.
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