Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta has stated that government will not finance the Free Senior High School (SHS) promise it made with the Heritage Fund.
This, is in sharp contrast with earlier assertions made by the Senior Minister; Yaw Osafo-Maafo that government will finance the Free SHS with the Heritage fund.
Soon after Mr. Osafo-Maafo made the assertion, there were some responses from a section of the public, warning the government not to touch the funds since it is meant for the future generation.
But Speaking to Accra-based Citi FM after an event organized by Achimota School as part of its 90th anniversary, Mr. Ofori Atta insisted that government will not finance the project from the Heritage Fund, but promised that details for funding it will be provided in the budget.
“We are financing the Free SHS education without looking at the Heritage Fund. As far as I know the Senior Minister did not say we will finance the Free SHS with the Heritage Fund. He alluded at looking at other options for us to be able to finance the Free SHS,” he said.
Mr. Ofori Atta stated that the government’s economic team has not considered the Heritage Fund as source of financing the Free SHS since there are many financial options opened to government to undertake the project.
“We are not considering using the Heritage Fund. I think we have enough resource envelopes to be able to do it without touching the Heritage Fund. We will not touch the Heritage Fund for the Free SHS,” he stressed.
He assured that details of how government intends to finance the project will be provided in the budget which will be presented in March before parliament.
“There is going to be a budgetary allocation for that and it does not include the Heritage Fund. We have to wait for the budget. There is still a lot of work to be done before March 2, or so when the budget will be read,” he noted.
