Government plans steps to counter economic fallout of coronavirus

Following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus that has erupted globally, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said government is analyzing the potential impact on the Ghanaian economy and will trigger the relevant response to minimize it.

According to him, Ghana must take advantage of the crisis from the virus to strengthen its domestic productive capacity to enable the nation to advance its self-reliance and reduce its dependence on foreign inputs.

"We must take advantage of the crisis over coronavirus to strengthen our domestic productive capacity so that we can advance our self-reliance and reduce our dependence on foreign inputs,” President Akufo-Addo said when he addressed the nation in a broadcast last night at the Jubilee House.

He added that government has begun engaging the domestic pharmaceutical industry to assist in producing as much logistics to prevent and combat the coronavirus.

Meanwhile, an amount of US$100 million will be made available by government through the Ministry of Finance as part of efforts to prepare and combat the spread of the virus.

Also, foreign travel restrictions have been placed on all public officials as at March 10, 2020 with the President appealing to the citizenry to desist from all foreign travels for now until a grip is found on the virus.