The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and the United Nation Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), yesterday began a two-day stakeholders’ meeting on the preparation of post-COVID-19 Economic Recovery and Resilience Plan (ERRP), for the city of Accra.
The workshop would create the platform for participants to present results of diagnostic study on the impact of COVID-19 on economy and financial sector of Accra, deliberate on interventions and implementation pathways with the city authorities and relevant stakeholders.
At the end of the workshop, which was being attended by the private sector, academia, civil society organisations, representatives of government and United Nation Resident Coordinator and key city authorities, would among other things, agree on timeline of activities and ‘deliverables’ leading up to the formulation of the ERRP.
Mohammed Nii Adjei-Sowah, the Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE) of Accra, said the UN as part of a broader initiative to support the economic recovery of local governments across the world, decided to conduct detail research into the impact of COVID-19 on economies of local government authorities.
He said the objective of the project was to inform local authorities of the impact of the pandemic on economic and financial resilience with relevant data.
Mr Adjei-Sowah it was to build the capacity of local authorities to enable them to improve upon economic situation and help them to prioritise new policy and development actions.
He said based on the diagnostic review, the AMA was able to produce a report covering five pillars of economic resilience on local business, local labour market, local financial systems, economic governance, local infrastructure and connectivity.
Mr Adjei-Sowah said “We must also align our development agenda more effectively, so that we can build our economies better by providing jobs, social protection, relevant labour skills, improving access to financial services, improving access to basic services, infrastructure and improving productivity of all sectors.”
He called for alignment of the recovery and resilience plan with the Ghana Cares Obatampa programme of the Ministry of Finance, to generate greater synergies and ensure an accelerated impact in stimulating the Accra city economy towards the state of recovery.
Mr John Kumah, deputy Minister-designate for the Finance Ministry, in a speech read on behalf of the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, noted that last year, when the pandemic furiously disrupted the lives of Ghanaians, parts of the country were partial locked down to protect lives and livelihood.
He said under the able-leadership of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo the impact of COVID-19 on Ghanaians was alleviate, and it also brought into reality an audacious vision to take advantage of opportunities offered by pandemic to transform the country.
By Lawrence Markwei and Zipporah Odonkor
