Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has told CNN that Ghana’s recent ranking as the second most peaceful country in Africa is partly due to decades-old efforts to achieve national stability.
Ghana was declared the second most peaceful country in Africa in a June report for 2021 Global Peace Index.
The ranking is compiled by UN-backed Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). The latest report also ranked Ghana the 38th most peaceful country in the world out of the 163 countries.
Ghana scored 1.715, which represents a two point move upwards from the previous Global Peace Index report.
Speaking on the ranking during an interview with CNN’s Richard Quest, Ken Ofori-Atta said the current peaceful environment in Ghana is a “legacy issue.â€
“As you know Nkrumah started the whole independence movement in 1957 and currently of course we are also headquarters for the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement which really is the next phase of independence with regard to trade and investment.
“We have established an enduring democratic environment which is really helping us. The excitement really for us as a country is the demonstration effect we having and how we tackled the COVID when it came in terms of the speed with which the President came out to state categorically that we do not know how to bring people back to life but we sure know how to fix the economy.
Up to 300 million needed for vaccinations
The Minister also revealed that Ghana needs up to $300 million to fund vaccination of close to 20 million Ghanaians to attain herd immunity against the coronavirus.
He said Ghana’s COVID-19 fighting efforts, like most parts of the world, has been hit by “vaccine nationalismâ€.
Vaccine nationalism explains what experts say is a growing phenomenon where a country manages to secure doses of vaccines for its own citizens or residents and prioritises its own domestic markets before they are made available in other countries.
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There are fears that COVID-19 infections in Ghana could hit a third wave following revelations that the Delta variant has been recorded in the community.
“I think the challenge really for the rest of the world is confronting this whole issue of vaccine nationalism that has occurred you realise that there are six to eight doses per 100 people in the West and two per 100 people in Ghana and that cannot continue.
“For us, we did quickly move over a million doses…I think it is about 99 per cent recovery and may be 800 deaths the question now becomes if you want to get the herd immunity of 60 per cent we are talking about 200 to 300 million dollars that has be funded,†he stated.
He said it was refreshing news that the world’s richest countries and global institutions have resolved to supply the million of vaccines doses that the poor countries in Africa need.
“We are expectant that this would occur,†he said.