The government says about 10,000 jobs were created during COVID-19 pandemic as a result of the local production of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
According to Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, Robert Ahomka Lindsey, gave these figures when he was speaking at the fourth series of the Nation Building Updates.
According to him, the country also saved over $16.8 million
“Some of the savings we made and because we made these face masks in Ghana. We saved over $16.8 million dollars. We didn’t need dollars to go and import these masks.”
“We also created over 10,000 jobs and these are very significant jobs because if you look around today, you would see that the graphs of many countries are going the opposite direction and it is because of these interventions.”
“Over 10,000 direct jobs were created and we had new investments by local financial institutions who as a result of the government making the orders for them to produce the masks, paid off all the loans they had with the banks. This the government putting its money where its mouth is and supporting its own to make sure that deliver.”
The government started the local production of PPE like face cloth face masks to ensure citizens had more access to protection from the virus.
Globally, there was a shortage of surgical masks and relying on imports was viewed as not being sustainable.
At the time there was also the shortage of the already procured PPE.
The medical PPE was reserved for frontline health workers.
The government expected 3.6 million face masks to be produced domestically, with an output of 150,000 per day.
