The World Bank has offered 100 million Dollars to Fund the Ghana Productive Safety Net Project.

The Ghana Productive Safety Net Project is a four-year financed project. This project was initiated in 2019 and is expected to end on 31st December 2022. The ministry of local government, Decentralization and Rural Development, and the Ministry, of Children and Social Protection, have been working to make this project a success. According to the available statistics, this project has so far accomplished a significant milestone by minimizing poverty across various regions in the country. Besides, the Ghana Productive Safety Net Project has improved the social protection agenda of the Government.

The Ministry of Finance appealed to the World Bank to support them with 100 million Dollars to boost Income Empowerment Against Poverty benefits. This money will also help the government of Ghana to discover and initiate other social protection projects. The Ghanaian government also launched the second edition of the poor intervention program this year, and it is anticipated to run up to 2025. The World Bank expressed its confidence in the Ghanaian government and their strategies to defeat poverty in the country. According to this bank, the efforts are important to boost general economic growth. The World Bank has two major objectives in Africa, to improve shared prosperity and terminate extreme poverty.

The world Bank has so far offered huge support to Ghana over the past couple of years, such as financing the Ghana Social Opportunity Project (GSOP) with 138.6 million Dollars, the Ghana Productive Safety Net Project with 60 million dollars, and the most recent one the GPSNP 2 with 100 million US dollars. The support has aided the government in reaching approximately two million poor and helpless Ghanaians.

The Ghana Productive Safety Net Project Learning Ceremony in Accra attracted many leaders from the government and the World Bank. The World Bank Country Director for Ghana, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, Mr Pierre Laporte, noted that the world bank is more interested in social protection because it is the major goal of their services. According to the director, the Bank has reliably offered support to the Ghanaian government so as to protect the poor and enhance economic growth.

The Deputy Minister and Minister-to-be for the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Hon. Lariba Zuweira Abudu said that there are several groups of people who have not yet benefitted from these projects. She said that these people include child beggars, street vendors, and hawkers, and they are not able to afford any emergency funds. The deputy minister insisted that child labour results from insufficient funds to cater for all expenses, such as accidents and sicknesses, which forces children to seek money to help their parents. According to Lariba, these people do not know anything concerning the social protection program, and therefore there is a lot that needs to be done to reach all the vulnerable people in the country.

Hon. Lariba Zuweira Abudu requested all the stakeholders in the social protection sector to identify, address and guide her to create digitized systems in the social protection sector and influence the government of Ghana’s digitization motive to guarantee improved service delivery.

The Minister for Local Government, Decentralisation, and Rural Development, Hon. Daniel Botwe, but his speech was read to the congregation. “The gesture of expanding safety net programmes to cover an additional number of districts is a further demonstration of President Akufo-Addo and the government’s desire to ensure that the country’s pro-poor programmes and social interventions are extended to all, which fits into the cliche leaving no one behind,” the speech read. He promised to continue serving the country diligently to boost local economic development.