[ 2017-02-17 ]

Ken Ofori-Atta, Finance Minister

We've 'enough resources' for Free SHS - Ofori-Atta
Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has said the
Akufo-Addo government has ample resources to
bankroll its Free Senior High School policy
without needing to touch the Heritage Fund.

“We are financing the Free SHS education without
looking at the Heritage Fund. We are not touching
the Heritage Fund. I think we have enough
resources from our envelope to be able to do it
without touching the Heritage Fund. …We will not
touch the Heritage Fund …There is going to be a
budget allocation for that and it does not include
the Heritage Fund,” Mr Ofori-Atta told
journalists on Thursday.

Mr Ofori-Atta’s clarification followed a comment
by Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Marfo that the
government may rely on the oil kitty to fund the
Free SHS policy.

Mr Osafo Marfo stated at a forum in Accra on
Tuesday 14 February that: “We have to make an
amendment to say that X per cent of the Heritage
Fund, or the Petroleum Fund will be used to
support second cycle education. If we think that
industry requires a certain stimulus that will
enable jobs to be created and you are creating a
job to build Ghana, you can look at it and put in
a certain amount. We are [also] looking at
agriculture.”

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo recently
assured Ghanaians that his government “will fund
the cost of public Senior High Schools for all
those who qualify for entry from the 2017/2018
academic year onwards”.

Spelling out the details of the policy, “so that
no one in Ghana is left in any doubt”, President
Akufo-Addo explained: “By Free SHS, we mean
that, in addition to tuition, which is already
free, there will be no admission fees, no library
fees, no science centre fees, no computer lab
fees, no examination fees, no utility fees; there
will be free textbooks, free boarding and free
meals, and day students will get a meal at school
for free.”

The president added: “Free SHS will also cover
agricultural, vocational and technical
institutions at the high school level. I also want
to state clearly again that we have a well
thought-out plan that involves the building of new
public senior high schools and cluster public
senior high schools”.

President Akufo-Addo made this known on Saturday,
February 11, 2017, when, as the Special Guest of
Honour, he delivered a speech at the 60th
anniversary celebration of Okuapeman School.

On Thursday, the Minority in Parliament said it
will resist the use of the Fund to fund the
programme scheduled to start in September this
year.

“We join the overwhelming majority of Ghanaians
and civil society groups to register our strongest
disapproval and objection to this idea. We wish to
state emphatically that we shall resist any
attempt to amend the Petroleum Revenue Management
Act. …A lot of thinking and consultation was put
into this Act which was led by the Finance
Ministry. International development partners were
consulted and lessons were drawn from the best
practices in oil producing countries the world
over. The Act is a product of national consensus
and has both executive and legislative
approvals,” former Deputy Finance Minister
Cassiel Ato Forson told journalists on Thursday,
16 February at a press conference organised by the
Minority in parliament.

Meanwhile, policy think tank IMANI Africa’s
Patrick Stephenson has said Ghana needs about $600
million per annum to fund and implement the Free
Senior High School programme introduced by the
Akufo-Addo government.

Speaking to Moro Awudu on Class91.3FM’s
Executive Breakfast Show on Thursday, 16 February,
on the proposed means of funding for the
programme, Mr Stephenson said the “total
proceeds that we have sitting in the Petroleum
Fund now – some rough computation suggest we
have a little over $300 million. How much do we
need to invest in free education annually? Rough
computations suggest something in excess of
$600million if we have to do it right and do it
well. Now if you decide to go and take the
resources out of your Petroleum Fund, clearly it
still doesn’t fix your entire financing problem
that you need and all of that is gone in just a
year. Not that it’s a bad thing in itself, you
should be able to demonstrate, for example, that
it’s going to be sustainable for the long term
and whatever they are putting in there goes in
there, but we haven’t heard all of these
things.”

The Ghana Heritage Fund was established in 2011 by
Section 10 (1) of the Petroleum Revenue Management
Act, 2011 (Act 815). It is meant to serve as an
endowment for future generations. It is not
supposed to be touched until after 15 years of its
establishment.

Each year, nine per cent of oil revenue is
deposited into the fund. According to figures from
the Bank of Ghana, in the first half of 2016, the
Heritage Fund received US$5.79 million while the
Stabilisation Fund received US$13.52 million.

In the second half of 2016, Heritage Fund received
US$6.85 million, while the Ghana Stabilisation
Fund received US$15.99 million.

As of December 2016, the Heritage Fund had accrued
US$262.57 million, making up eight per cent of
total revenue from oil proceeds distributed to the
Petroleum Holding Fund (PHF) and the Ghana
Petroleum Funds (GPFs).

The Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) received a
total of US$1,473.45 million representing 43
percent of the total revenue while the Ghana
National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) received a
total amount of US$1,057.30 million equivalent to
31 percent of total revenue.

The Ghana Stabilisation Fund (GSF) received an
amount of US$633.87 million (18 per cent).

Source - classfmonline.com

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