World Bank approves $300m for Ghana

The World Bank has approved $300 million financing arrangement for the government to enhance the implementation of the country's development initiatives.

The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Kwabena Dufuor and the Country Director of the World Bank, Mr Ishac Diwan, are set to append their signatures to the financing deals in Accra Wednesday.

Sources at the Ministry of Finance and the World Bank Country Office, told the Daily Graphic in Accra that the amount would cover six areas of financing.

They include $79 million for social opportunities, $69 million for sustainable rural water and sanitation project and $70 million additional financing for the Ghana Energy Development and Access Project to improve distribution of electricity.

Others include the second phase of the Food and Agricultural Sector Development Policy (FASDEP II), which has received $25 million upfront (equivalent to Special Drawing Rights {SDR 6,600}); a $44.7 million supplementary financing for the e-Ghana project; and $10 million for natural resources and environmental governance project.

The sources said the social opportunities financing would help improve social protection and increase access to employment and cash-earning opportunities during agricultural off-seasons.

The financing would also increase access to conditional cash transfers nationwide and improve economic infrastructure in target districts.

A recent World Bank study identified cash transfers to be one of the most well-targeted social intervention policies in the country.

Some sources say GEDAP, which was first signed in August, 2007, would receive the additional $70 million financing to enable the government to provide supplementary financing for network reinforcement in densely populated urban areas, as well as build capacity for improved distribution system management, particularly with respect to commercial performance.

"The bulk of proposed activities would be focused on improving electricity distribution network and service delivery in the Ashanti Region, where losses incurred by the national electricity provider, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) are the highest, and the demand growth is the fastest", the sources said.

The Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) is an addition to the e-Ghana project that has necessitated the additional $44.7 million financing.

GIFMIS is expected to integrate the government's revenue and expenditure framework into one platform to help harmonise monitoring and evaluation with the aim of improving the quality of government expenditure and eliminating waste.

GIFMIS will serve as the official system of record, processing and reporting to meet the government's budget preparation and management, financial accounting and reporting, disbursement processing, internal controls and auditing requirements.



Source: Daily Graphic

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