Govt to distribute free digi-boxes to vulnerable households - Omane Boamah

Government has planned to distribute free digital television boxes to vulnerable households as part of a pro-poor policy when Ghana fully migrates from analogue to digital broadcasting.

The Minister of Communications, Dr Edward Omane Boamah who made this known in Parliament did not mention how much the new programme will cost the tax payer.

The Minister, who was contributing to the debate on the 2016 budget, reiterated that the full migration will be completed in 2016.

But in a response the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) has described the proposed plan by government as a misplaced priority.

A senior budget analyst at ISODEC, Charlotte Afudego told Citi FM that the resources should rather be used to cushion the poor against government austerity measures.

“If you are reducing spending, definitely you have to prioritize certain things that are most important and will generate the needed development. Government has plans of covering people who are extremely poor by 2017 with this LEAP programme. But even what the 2016 budget has provided; that is about 250,000 people which you are not sure that you will be able to cover them by 2017. So instead of providing these digi-boxes, why won’t rather expand the LEAP more,” she said.