AFAG advises Nana Addo to set up SHS Fund

Europa

February 16, 2017 3:23 PM

The government is considering using the Heritage Fund to finance the Free Senior High school policy.

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Pressure group Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG), has advised the government to establish a Senior High School Fund that will become a permanent and sustainable source of funding for the Free Senior High School policy.

At a press conference in Accra on Thursday, 16 February, the group said even though it is not against the use of the Heritage Fund to fund the policy, it “is of the opinion that any amount of money taken from the Heritage Fund to support the Free SHS should be considered as a loan payable at an interest rate commensurate to the returns the Heritage Fund would have made if the fund had been invested in the open market.”

"We believe that we need to raise the needed money to begin the programme. The Heritage Funds is one secure way for which funding could be raised for the programme, however, the money should not be free,” Mr Arnold Boateng, Secretary to AFAG said.

Ghana's Senior Minister, Mr. Yaw Osafo Marfo on Tuesday said: “We are going to look at the Heritage Fund. The Heritage [Fund] implies for the future. We want to introduce…and the president mentioned it last week [Free Senior High School] and it is likely to be funded through the Petroleum Act [Heritage Fund].”

He said the government will amend the Act to allocate some portions of the fund to the implementation of the policy.

His comments come on the back of concerns that the implementation of the Free Senior High School policy will not be sustainable especially with the financial situation of the country.

Many have, however, raised issues with the government’s plan to use the Heritage Fund to finance the policy.

The Heritage Fund is set up to support the development of future generations when Ghana’s petroleum reserves have been depleted. The Fund receives nine percent of the country’s annual petroleum revenue.

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Chairman of the Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas, Dr Steve Manteaw has told Pulse.com.gh that using the Fund to finance the free SHS policy will destroy the purpose for which the Fund was set up.

He advised that the government should rather “look into the direction of the ABFA [Annual Budget Funding Amount] and leave the Heritage Fund alone because it is the only thing we may have to show for the oil resources that this country has been endowed with.”

He said:“If the current government wants to channel all the 70% [of the ABFA] to finance free SHS and Ghanaians are happy with it, we have no problem because the law allows us to do that. We are opposed to a situation where any government comes to power and makes changes to existing laws to suit it.”

Europa