The World Bank is to commit $450 million to support the Ghanaian economy this year. This will be made up of $200 million budget support and another $250 million for project support, which the Country Director, Mr. Ishac Diwan, explained is part of a package of $1billion support for Ghana for the next three years.
He confirmed to the Daily Graphic in Accra that Ghana also has an outstanding $1billion financing portfolio with the bank to be disbursed to support certain on-going sector-specific programmes and projects.
He told the Daily Graphic, after a video press conference of the World Bank President, Mr. Robert Zoellick, with journalists from 20 sub-Saharan African countries, that the bank will be disbursing $450 million to support the budget and projects in Ghana for the next three years.
“We are finalising our plans for the next three years and hopefully, this should be approved by the board in June this year,” Mr. Diwan explained.
Last year $150 million could not be released on scheduled in the last quarter of that year because the government could not meet some key commitments it had made to the bank.
They included the passage of the Right to Information Law and a law to regulate the use of oil and gas resources in the country.
Both laws are nearing passage and Mr. Diwan said that as soon as the processes are completed, the outstanding disbursement for last year will be released this year to support the budget.
Being the year in which the country is expected to produce oil and gas in commercial quantities, stakeholders in the Ghanaian economy are careful not to neglect the other sectors of the economy. In this regard, agriculture, the mainstay of the economy, will be supported to serve as another economic pillar of the country besides gold and timber.
He said that out of the $88 million it supported its clients with to mitigate the effects of the crises, the bank increased sub-Saharan Africa’s share by 36 per cent to $7.8 billion between 2008 and June last year, adding that the institutions is talking to its shareholders to increase its capital base to be able to offer more of such support.
