The World Bank has reiterated its dedication to supporting the economic development of African nations, with a particular focus on financing key projects in Ghana.
This commitment was emphasised by Ousmane Diagana, Vice President for West and Central Africa at the World Bank, during a high-level delegation visit to President John Mahama’s office in Accra on Wednesday, January 8, 2025.
“In the last couple of months since the arrival of the new president Ajay Banga, there is a concept that we call the better and bigger World Bank. But we are now focusing on the better bank before actually getting to the bigger bank.
“So with the better bank, obviously the elements of ownership for government, client, and partnership will be the order complementing the financial assistance that we are providing with the knowledge aspect because as a global institution, obviously we work with all of the countries and this has allowed us to gain a lot of experience,” Diagana stated.
He highlighted the importance of bringing resources into the economy and ensuring they are effectively utilised.
“As we mentioned on the formality aspect, how we can bring resources into the economy, making sure that those are not part of financing the economy…In particular in West African countries, this challenge that Ghana is facing in that area is the same that we see in Senegal, Kenya, etc.
“So, we are happy to bring our department working in the area into the conversation with Ghana and see how we can really widen the resource base, making sure that the domestic organisation part of financing the economy also increases,” he explained.
On the agricultural front, Diagana highlighted the challenges and opportunities within Ghana’s cocoa sector. “On cocoa, Ghana is one of those countries where we have prepared what we call the country climate and development and we had indeed identified the potential that exists in the agricultural sector, in particular, the whole of cocoa but at the same time the challenges the sector has faced…So we have some recommendations that the team can discuss at some point and in that regard see how we can use our existing programme because we have some dedicated programmes in order to contribute in that sector,” he stated.
