Uncapping NHIS Levy enough to Address USAID Funding Gap – Finance Minister

Minister of Finance, Cassiel Ato Forson is confident in the government’s ability to fill a $156 million financing gap created as a result of closure of the operations of the United States for International Development (USAID) globally. Dr. Forson (MP, Ajumaku-Enyan-Essiam) took his turn on Question Time on Tuesday where he said an amount of GH¢100 million has been allocated in the goods and services component of the 2025 Budget to be used for procurement of vaccines since most of USAID funding went towards health sector interventions.

He said, “As part of the resources that will be made available as a result of the uncapping of the National Health Insurance Levy. Part of it will be used to close the gap created following the suspension of the USAID funding. Additionally, an amount of 100 million Ghana cedis is made, is being allocated in the goods and services budget of the Ministry of Health under the expenditure line Global Fund. This will be used to procure vaccines that hitherto were being funded by the USAID.”

He continued, by uncapping the National Health Insurance Levy, Ghana will raise enough revenue to meet the funding gap. An amount of GH¢9.9 billion has been allocated to the National Health Insurance Authority for the 2025 financial year with GH¢4.2 billion projected to be added to the Levy due to uncapping.

The finance minister on Thursday, March 13 presented for first reading the Earmarked Funds Capping and Realignment (Amendment) Bill, 2025 in his commitment to uncap the health insurance and GETFund levies announced in the 2025 Budget and economic policy statement.

Meanwhile, Dr. Forson has defended the slow rate of depreciation of the Ghanaian Cedi which has witnessed stability since February 19 this year. The Cedi saw a reduction in depreciation by 0.4% between March this year and the same period last year. He noted, the Ghana Cedi experienced a depreciation of 5.3% against the US Dollar at an exchange rate of GH¢15.53 to the dollar as of March 14 this year. This compared to 5.7% depreciation over the same period in 2024 at a cedi-dollar exchange rate of 12.6 to the dollar.

Therefore, “to maintain this exchange rate stability that we have seen relatively from February 19th, the Ministry of Finance working with the central bank has outlined a number of policies” including the establishment of the Ghana Gold Board to “enhance the generation of foreign currency to help the central bank accumulate enough forex and to intervene as and when they are supposed to intervene.”

Source: Ceditalk