Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has disclosed that his Ministry will source funding from the International Capital Market to support the 2021 Expenditure In Advance of Appropriation Budget.

The Finance Minister said this while delivering his 2021 First Quarter Budget Statement before parliament.

The 2021 Expenditure In Advance of Appropriation budget on the authority of President Akufo-Addo seeks to have Parliament's approval by resolution, the withdrawal of the sum of GH¢27,434,180,520 from the Consolidated Fund.

He disclosed that the funding will take the form of issuance of sovereign
bonds of US$3 billion with the option to increase it to US$5 billion should market conditions prove favourable.

"Out of the amount to be raised, US$1.5 billion will be used to support the
2021 budget and US$3.5 billion for liability management," he said.

The budget, he says, is for the purpose of meeting expenditure necessary to carry out the services of Government in respect of the period expiring three months of the Financial Year.

“The total amount is to cover Government operations, such as Compensation of Employees, ex-gratia awards, Interest and Amortization payments, transfers to Statutory Funds, critical programmes and Goods and Services, and Capex allocations of MDAs,” he said.

The programmes under this expenditure include work on the (Agenda 111) District and Regional Hospitals, which commenced in 2020 to ensure health facilities are available in all deprived places.

Currently, 88 site plans have been submitted by the district assemblies and contractors and consultants are being procured.

He stated that the rehabilitation of the Effia Nkwanta and Accra Psychiatric hospitals and the construction of the two psychiatric hospitals in Kumasi and Tamale will be fast-tracked.

Adding that funds have also been provided to facilitate the reopening of schools in the early part of 2021 to keep the spread of new infections of the Covid-19 virus at its current low levels.

He stated that the Government's TVET agenda for next year will witness the start of the jobs and skills project to support apprenticeships and competency-based training curriculum development in over 100 trade areas and entrepreneurship.

Adding that 2021 will see the beginning of construction of the flagship
state-of-the-art TVET centres (2 per region), fully equipped with modern training facilities in 33 trades/professions across 11 economic sectors.

Below is the full statement from the Finance Minister.