Ghanaian urges donors to cancel debt of Ebola-hit countries

Ghanaian President John Mahama has appealed to the donor community to cancel the debt of the three West African countries ravaged by the Ebola Virus Disease.

Mahama, who is also chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), made the request during a courtesy call by the German minister for economic cooperation, Gerd Muller, and his colleague minister for health Hermann Groehe, here on Thursday.

He said Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, had had their economies heavily battered by the EVD outbreak.

"Ebola has taken a very serious toll on them in terms of their economies and as the World Bank said it has accounted for a reduction of 4.6 percent in GDP," Mahama said.

The ECOWAS chair said the debt cancelation would help the affected countries to re-engineer their economies and bounce back on their feet.

"The three most affected countries need the help of the international community both to increase the resilience of their response in future to any such attacks by improving their public health systems," he said.

Mahama made a similar call on behalf of the sub-region at a recent meeting of the African Union in Addis Ababa.

The Ghanaian leader also commended Germany for the critical role it played in the establishment of the UN's rapid response efforts, which led to the reduction of Ebola cases in the three countries. Endi