... to break poverty cycle
Accra, May 11, GNA - Ghana needs about six billion dollars to enable her to break the cycle of poverty, the Minister of Finance, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu said on Thursday.

Speaking during a loan signing ceremony in Accra between Ghana and Belgium, Mr Baah-Wiredu said with the country's scarce resources she only had to rely on other nations for assistance before "we would be able help our people out".

He explained that 26 trillion cedis was internally generated as revenue, while seven trillion cedis and six trillion cedis were received as grants and loans, respectively.

"With this little money we could not cater for all our needs as a country, and we could not overtax our people also. So we still need the assistance of other nations like Belgium," he said.

Giving the breakdown, Mr Baah-Wiredu told GNA that roads, railways, water and telecommunication sectors all needed one billion dollars each for expansions and other works while the energy sector, involving Volta River Authority and Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) required two billion dollars to effectively provide the needed services to the people.

He said the Ministries, Departments and Agencies had also put in a request for 80 trillion cedis this year to run their programmes and services, "but with our little money, we cannot adequately meet these needs unless other nations helped us out. This is done everywhere".