Ghana is expected to get US$550 million from the World Bank to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

“We are an institution with a very single country in the world being a member so we are accountable to member countries. We have to satisfy our board of directors that the debt relief that was given was used as expected to help in the education and not to where they aren't supposed to be.

“In total, by August this year, the World Bank would have given 550 million resources, specifically for COVID to Ghana", Country Director of the World Bank, Pierre Frank Laporte mentioned.

He pointed out that the global financial institution will undertake an assessment of the coronavirus situation in December 2020 to find out the state of the pandemic before a decision will be taken to extend the debt suspension for countries.

According to him, the debt suspension will be extended if the COVID-19 situation is getting worse by the deadline period of December 2020.

The Bretton Wood institution is, however, advising the government to transparently utilise the funds provided to the country. 

In March 2020, African finance ministers called for a US$100 billion stimulus package aside from a request for the suspension of debt service payments.

They held a virtual conference to discuss ways to deal with the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic on African nations.

This was to help the continent combat the impact of the coronavirus on the economy

Accordingly, the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), African Development Bank (AfDB) and other regional institutions allowed the countries to tap into existing facilities.

The institutions suspended debt servicing on U$44 billion debt.

The suspension is expected to last till December 2020, by which the time, the coronavirus count cases will have drop drastically.

But the World Bank Country Director told 3FM that some Finance Ministers had already called for an extension of the period.

“Between now and December, countries who qualified for this initiative are expected to request formally through bilateral [agreement] to have a suspension in their debt service until December.

“And after December the processes and initiatives will be reviewed. We will know the impact and how things are at that point in time", he added.