Ghana: World Bank approves $200 million additional funding for Ghana project

Accra, Ghana (PANA) - The World Bank has approved $200 million as additional funding for the Ghana COVID-19 Emergency Preparedness and Response Project (EPRP), local media reported here Wednesday.

The fund is to empower the government to procure vaccines through the COVAX facility and deploy them for 13 million people.
The project will "strengthen the resilience of Ghana’s health systems to better prepare for future pandemics and secure the continuation of essential health and nutritional services, including routine childhood immunisation".
"This is the second funding the World Bank has extended to Ghana under its fast-track package to enable developing countries to strengthen their COVID-19 responses.
"The first was a $100-million support in April last year to assist the country to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic as a short, medium and long-term support," reported the state-run Daily Graphic.
The daily said the financing package includes $35 million in emergency support to help Ghana provide improved response systems.
Under the emergency package, Ghana was supported to prevent, detect and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic through the EPRP.
Ghana experienced a surge in infections and fatalities in January 2021, when it entered a second wave of rising infections of COVID-19.
“The World Bank is happy to support this second additional financing, given the importance of preventing deaths and reducing transmission of COVID-19 among the population by providing access to COVID-19 vaccines towards accelerating economic and social recovery in Ghana,” the World Bank Country Director for Ghana, Pierre Laporte, said in a statement issued in Washington, DC, USA.
“We are also aware of the continuing difficulties in having access to COVID-19 vaccines and logistics due to global vaccine market challenges and will continue to work to address the inequity in vaccine supplies that is impacting Ghana and other developing countries.
“The Ghana COVID-19 EPRP second additional financing will enable the country to explore the acquisition of COVID-19 vaccines from a range of sources to support Ghana’s target to vaccinate 17.5 million people in a way that ensures value for money,” he added.
The project will also support an equitable and effective distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, in line with Ghana’s National Vaccine Deployment Plan.
“The project will build on efforts of the existing Ghana COVID-19 EPRP by scaling up and strengthening surveillance of the pandemic, case management, increasing public acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines and COVID-19 vaccine deployment,” the World Bank’s Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice Manager for the West African Region, Gaston Sorgho, said.
He added that it would help strengthen cold chain equipment, vaccine safety monitoring and medical waste management.
-0-PANA  RA 16June2021