Ousmane Diagana, the World Bank Vice-President for West and Central Africa, has divulged that the Board of Directors of the World Bank Group are set to approve a new Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for Ghana.

Mr Diagana made this known at a press briefing in Accra. According to World Bank Vice-President for West and Central Africa, the new Country Partnership Framework (CPF) is expected to be presented to the World Bank Group’s board on 22nd February 2022 for the necessary approval.

“In the next couple of weeks, the World Bank would be presenting to its board a new country partnership framework (CPF) and one of the key goals of this strategy is to create the condition for a strong private sector-led growth; put resilience of the population, economy and community, support reform programmes that will lead to job creation and obviously to secure the development path that Ghana is going through.”
Ousmane Diagana

Mr Diagana used the opportunity to praise the country for its management of the COVID-19 pandemic and commended the government for its economic recovery programmes as well.

“Ghana has well managed the COVID-19 pandemic, the vaccination continues, progress has been made, obviously, efforts should be pursued and sustained so that the majority of the population will access to the vaccine…

“Talking about economic recovery, I must praise the Ghanaian Government for its accomplishments so far. Growth is already back at a level which was not expected at more than 4%. Obviously, our role as a development institution is to continue to work with the country in order to create the condition for sustaining that growth to make it equitably distributed. So that inclusion which is essential for the development of any country could also be more achieved in Ghana.”
Ousmane Diagana

The Vice President averred that Ghana has always defined strategies that made the World Bank’s interventions and support to the country relatively easy. He also touched on the recent coup situations in the sub region, noting that unity is the only way the continent can foster growth.

“You have seen what is happening in Burkina Faso and what happened in Mali, Ghana is not far from those countries. It is therefore very essential that together we continue to work to make sure that the economic opportunities will benefit all the population particularly the youth who need to have access to the job market and to also have access to decent jobs.”
Ousmane Diagana

Ghana Beyond Aid Important

Mr Diagana bellowed that Ghana’s ambition of attaining self-reliance through the slogan christened ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ must be celebrated.

“The vision that Ghana has set for itself; ‘the Ghana Beyond Aid’ is something that needs to be applauded, because I think it’s very important if you look at development as a long term agenda really to be visionary and to create the condition, however, to achieve this vision in a realistic manner.

“When you look at all the countries that have been developed in history, they are having a clear vision in transforming their natural resources”.
Ousmane Diagana

The World Bank currently has about US$3.2 billion worth of projects in diverse areas of the Ghanaian economy.

This is Ousmane Diagana’s first visit to Ghana since his appointment as vice-president for the region in July 2020. His 3-day visit is from 7th February to 9th February, 2022. He will hold high-level discussions with government officials on critical areas of the World Bank’s Ghana program including macro-economic, energy sector issues, COVID-19 pandemic, and vaccine rollout.