The Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) has welcome the NDC manifesto pledge to use a portion of the country’s oil revenues to support the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), which has been going through serious financial challenges that threaten to bring down the scheme.
Analysing the NDC manifesto highlights, presented to the nation by its flag bearer last Tuesday, the Campaigns Coordinator for ISODEC, Dr Steve Manteaw said, he has no reservation in congratulating the President, John Dramani Mahamah and his NDC party for their manifesto pledge to use a portion of the country’s oil revenue to sustain the NHIS and to ensure that the majority of Ghanaians are able to access healthcare when they need it.
He explained that the pledge is not only feasible, but also sensible. He spoke to afternoon talk show host Kaba on Asempa FM’s ‘Ekosi sen’.
Dr Manteaw argued that, “Investment in the health of our people is investment in the quality of the country’s human resource, and so all Ghanaians should rally behind the pledge”.
The Petroleum Revenue Management Act, 2011, Act 815, with its recent amendments, provides for spending 70 percent of net oil receipts through the budget. This the law refers to as the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA). The law directs that ABFA spending should be aligned with the country’s long term development plan, in the absence of which, the allocation should be spent on four priority areas, selected from a list of 13 pre-determined spending areas. This, the law says must be review in every medium term i.e. every three years.
For the past six years the government has opted to spend the ABFA in the areas of Agriculture Modernisation, Roads and other infrastructure, Capacity building, and Amortization of loans contracted for oil and gas projects. An analysis of the oil revenues, their allocation, and spending, put together by the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) indicates that between 2011 and 2015 Ghana has earned a total of US$3.2 billion from its share of oil production from Jubilee. Out of the amount, and in accordance with the law, a total of US$1.43 billion has been available for spending through the budget.
Even though health is not one of the priority areas selected for oil-spending, an amount of GHC2.7 million, according to PIAC, has so far been spent on health-related infrastructure. Capturing this particular spending under Infrastructure is a convenient way of ensuring that the health sector also benefits from oil revenues. It is ISODEC’s expectation that, if the NDC party is retained in power, and the pledge is fulfilled, CSOs working in the health sector will work closely with PIAC and the National Insurance Authority to monitor allocations and help eliminate any waste to be identified.
Media reports from an ongoing outreach by PIAC to 60 districts across the country suggest that majority of Ghanaians claim they do not feel the impact of the oil revenues in their lives, and are therefore, calling for re-focusing of the expenditures to improve the human
Development of Ghanaians.
Indeed, some of the expenditures, according to widespread public opinion, are questionable, such as GHC2 million dished out to the Musicians Association of Ghana (MUSIGA) in the name of capacity building; and the use of GHC3.6 million for the branding of a fleet of mass transit busses, at a time when the NHIS was in dire need of funds to extend healthcare, especially to people of modest means in our society.
Background to the NDC pledge
One commendable step taken by the government in recent times to revive the National Health Insurance Scheme, and to put it on a path to sustainability is the establishment of a Technical Committee by the Minister of Health, to analyse the scheme and to proffer suggestions for addressing the myriad of challenges it faces. The Committee’s work was supported by a Ministerial Advisory Committee whose membership was drawn from across the political divide, and included highly reputed health professionals, and non-state actors working in the health sector.
After careful consideration of the options for recapitalizing the scheme, both the technical and advisory committees agreed to the suggestion to recommend the setting up of portion of the Annual Budget Funding Amount (70 percent of petroleum receipts) to support the scheme. The acceptance of the proposal and its inclusion in the NDC manifesto will set Ghana on a path to ensuring universal health coverage for Ghanaians.
Gas to steal the show
Another proposal from the NDC manifesto which the policy advocacy group says it finds exciting is the promise to construct a fertilizer plant in Shama, in the Western Region. ISODEC says even though Africa is an agrarian continent, and has abundance of condensates from gas production activities on the continent no single oil-producing African country has a fertilizer plant to add value to its condensates. The entire continent imports its fertilizer from Asia, predominantly India. The pledge to construct a fertilizer plant if carried out could therefore make Ghana the African hub for fertilizer production. The move, Dr Manteaw says, will create jobs, eliminate the country’s fertilizer import bill, save foreign exchange and bring in new export revenue stream, if the country decides to export some of the fertilizer to be produced locally.”
By Portia Bukari
