A senior lecturer at the Department of Economics at the University of Ghana is predicting tough times ahead if the European Union (EU) does not resume disbursement of its donor budget support to the country.
The EU has put a freeze on its budget support to Ghana for sometime time.
In 2013, Ghana received close to 16 million Euros from the European Union.
This included a 10 million Euro Sector Budget Support for the Ministry of Health, and over five Million Euros for General Budget Support under Ghana’s Multi-Donor Budget Support framework.
But the EU for some time now has held on to the funds.
Though it is unclear what might have motivated the freeze some analysts have attributed it to the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) which Ghana has not signed among other things.
President John Mahama earlier appealed to the new head of EU delegation to Ghana William Hanna to restore disbursement “Recently, multi-donor partner support has been withheld from Ghana due to some issues. It is my expectation that as we go along, whatever difficulties exist, we will be able to iron out in order that we see a resumption of this budget support.” He explained that Ghana needed the support because the “EU is a significant international development partner especially when it comes to issues with multi-donor partner budget support.
Speaking to Citi Business News senior lecturer at the Department of Economics at the University of Ghana, Dr. Ebo Turkson says it will be difficult for government to meet its short to medium term objectives if the EU does not resume the funding of Ghana’s budget.
“Whether the budget was cut because of the EPA we have not signed or because we have not used monies that are given us in the past properly that I cannot confirm, but I can say it will make us have some challenges with the budget especially given that the EU is a major development partner of Ghana. It will be very difficult for the government to meet its short to medium term objectives set.”
By: Norvan Acquah- Hayford/citifmonline.com/Ghana
