Former Finance Minister, Seth Terkper is proposing an increase in investments into the Ghana Stabilisation Fund.

The Stabilisation Fund was established under the Petroleum Revenue Management (PRMA) Act (Act 815). Its primary objective is to cushion the impact on or sustain public spending in periods of unexpected falls in petroleum revenues.

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, government has had to fall on the Fund for Ghana’s Coronavirus Alleviation Programme.

Mr Terkper said government would have had more than the $250 million it got from the Fund if investments into the Fund was increased.

Speaking on JoyNews’ The Pulse, the former minister said if there was more money in the Fund, government would not have needed an extra one billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“If we did not have $250 million of our own money, we would have needed more than one billion [from the IMF]. So we could have done more if we had increased the level of inflow into the Fund.

In Mr Terkper’s view the country has already done a great job at ensuring that the Fund is adequately resourced but more can be done.

“As a nation, we have to continue with this. Much of what we are using now was built when we had one oil field. This may be the first time that Ghana has gone into its own resources to provide a quarter of what the IMF was giving us.”