The Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori Atta, has revealed that the Government has not laid off any public sector worker when the country was struck with the Covid-19 pandemic.
He made the revelation in Parliament on Wednesday November 17, 2021 when he was reading the Budget and financial estimates for the 2022.
A research conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the World Bank on May 26 and June 17 2020 revealed that during the lockdown in 2020, businesses were negatively impacted.
According to their report, some “770,000 workers representing some 25.7% of the total workforce had their wages reduced and about 42,000 employees were laid off” during the partial lockdown.
However, the Minister stated that none of the public sector workers was affected.
“Under the Coronavirus Alleviation Programme Business Support Scheme (CAPBuSS), Ghana Enterprises Agency provided 302,001 successful applicants across various sectors and regions with loans amounting to GHȼ523.11 million.
“Mr. Speaker, we also ensured payment of our obligations to contractors and provided payroll support to some State-owned Enterprises to guarantee jobs.
“Thankfully, our President led and acted, decisively and intelligently and his leadership paved the way for many other countries in Africa and beyond.”
