Accra, June 18, GNA – A two-day stakeholders’ workshop on developing an Economic Recovery and Resilience Plan (ERRP) for the city of Accra has opened in Accra.
It will look at the results of a diagnostic study on impact of COVID-19 on the economy and financial sector of Accra, deliberate on policy interventions and implementation pathways with the city authorities and relevant stakeholders, for the preparation of the local ERRP.
It is organized by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) in collaboration with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and is expected to provide an update on the Development Account (DA) 13
Project’s outputs and products.
It would review and gather inputs for the preparation of the ERRP, define the specific contributions of the ERRP to the city’s medium-term plan – 2022-2025 and agree on the timeline of the activities and deliverables leading up to the formulation of the ERRP.
Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, the Minister of Finance in a keynote address read on his behalf said; “Through Ghana CARES, Government aims to improve the business environment and provide great support to small-medium enterprises (SMEs) in Accra through the US$200 million Ghana Economic Transformation Project together other development partners.
He said Government had prioritized jobs and skills initiative to deal with the vulnerabilities in the labour market, especially in the Accra Metropolitan Area to provide workers who lost their jobs, due to the COVID-19 access to re-training programmes and decent employment.
“The training programmes will focus on technical and vocational skills in light manufacturing, housing and construction, digital economy and commercial farming,” he said.
Mr Mohammed Adjei Sowah, the Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive announced that as part of the DA 13 Project, the Assembly in collaboration with the UNECA would soon publish the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for Accra.
He said the DA 13 Project was conceived by the United Nations as part of broader initiative to support the economic recovery of local governments across the world and its first phase involved a diagnostic review of economic resilience and the next phase would be to prepare an economic recovery plan based on the findings in the diagnostic study.
Mr Sowah called on the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council and the adjoining municipalities to take interest in the findings of the AMA diagnostic report as they prepare their respective Medium-Term Development Plans for the period 2022-2025.
He emphasized the need to align the ERRP with the Ghana CARES Obatampa programme of the Ministry of Finance to generate synergies and to ensure an accelerated impact in stimulating the economic recovery of Accra.
He was hopeful that Accra would adopt the global indicators into a data system for continual evaluation and monitoring of the economic and financial recovery and establish a basis for developing long-term economic trends that could be relied on for economic estimations.
GNA