Channel Covid-19 levy to finance healthcare – Dr. Sarkodie

COVID-19 levy can be directed towards the financing of healthcare if the government has finished paying off the COVID-19-related loans for which the levy was introduced, Dr. Adu Sarkodie of the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS) has said.

Formally known as the COVID-19 Health Recovery Levy Act 2021, Act 1068 came into force in March 2021 to pay for COVID-19-related debts incurred by the government following the onslaught of the global pandemic.

Speaking at the National Dialogue event today [February 1], organised by Media General in collaboration with the STAR-Ghana Foundation, the economics professor said, amongst other things, that healthcare financing should be sustainable.

Dr. Adu Sarkodie was of the view that the COVID-19 recovery levy is a sustained means of raking in some revenue to fund healthcare in the country.

“In healthcare financing, the source of the financing should be sustainable,” he said.

Ghanaians are still paying for the COVID-19 levy despite the significant reduction in casualties from the virus.

Dr. Sarkodies’s presentation centred on areas where the government can pluck more revenue, specifically the extractive sector. As a short-term measure, Dr. Sarkodie urged the government to work to increase the royalties from the extractive sector.

Read more:

• National dialogue on free SHS sustainability needed – Apaak
• Ghana’s natural resources valued at $10 trillion, that’s half of US GDP – Adu Sarkodie asks govt to finance health from extractive
• No woman should die from her God-given task of childbearing – Nana Oye

“In the short term, we must increase the royalties of all the mining companies in the country,” he suggested, stating that “this is going to give us another two to five billion cedis if you increase the royalties.”

“The next one, which is a little controversial, but I will say it, is the COVID-19 recovery levy. Government told us the levy was to pay for the loans it contracted during the COVID-19 outbreak. Others are calling for the scrapping of it; I do not subscribe to that,” he noted.

He further emphasised that there are fiscal challenges facing the country, and this is not the time to call for the abolishment of certain taxes.

This, he said, is because the government does not have money.

“What I will propose is that we take, if they [government] have finished paying the COVID-19 loan, they should keep the COVID-19 levy and channel it to healthcare financing because COVID-19 is a health issue,” Dr. Adu Sarkodie stated.

On her part, former Minister for Gender, Children, and Social Protection, Nana Oye Bampoe Addo, said all efforts should be made to reduce the rate of maternal mortality further.

“We need this cooperation, the resources, and partnership to ensure that when a woman is performing this natural role that God has given her for bringing life and sustaining our populations, she is supported and does not die from this task,” she said.

Media General (MG) and STAR-Ghana Foundation held the National Dialogue to discuss issues of healthcare under the theme “Sustainable health financing to achieve improved maternal health outcomes.”