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Ghana
receives 100 million dollars from World Bank
Accra, June 13, Ghanadot/GNA - The World
Bank and Ghana have signed an agreement for 100 million
dollars to support the implementation of programmes in the
2008 Budget and social welfare packages announced by the
Government.
The amount includes 90 million dollars, to support
programmes under the 2008 Budget and 10 million dollars to
support the mitigation measures announced by Government to
address the rising cost of living and to scale up Government
social welfare programmes at protecting the consumption
level of the poor.
Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Finance Minister and Ishac Diwan,
World Bank Country Director, signed the agreement.
Briefing the press at the signing ceremony in Accra, Mr
Baah-Wiredu said the money made available under the Poverty
Reduction Support Credit would support programmes and policy
measures outlined in the Ghana Growth and Poverty- Reduction
Strategy (GPRS II) and reform measures agreed upon in the
MDBS Matrix with the country's development partners.
Mr Baah Wiredu said due to the rising oil prices, Government
spent 680 million dollars between January and April 2008 on
oil imports compared to 632.97 million dollars for the same
period last year.
He said the implementation of the mitigation measures
announced by the Government to lessen the impact of high
food prices meant government was forfeiting significant
revenue, which should have gone into other development
projects.
Mr Diwan said the Bank decided to provide such a support to
the Government to ensure that the poor did not sink into
abject poverty.
He said under the social protection measures, the
Government's Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP)
would receive a boost to reach an additional 1,818
households and ensure that children remained in school and
were vaccinated.
There would also be the broadening of the essential
community action package in the poorest regions and
providing funds to exempt the poor and pregnant women from
paying the premium for the National Health Insurance Scheme,
he said.
Mr Diwan said these operations were focusing on accelerating
the kind of growth that benefited the poor, supported the
delivery of basic services, especially water to the citizens
across the country, and continued to work towards better and
more inclusive governance.
MDBS is a harmonized partnership framework in which the
government and a number of its development partners
committed themselves to provide direct funding for the
implementation of the Ghana Growth and Poverty-Reduction
Strategy through the annual budget.
Since its inception in 2003, a total of 1.7 billion dollars
has been disbursed under the framework, with over 700
million dollars coming form the World Bank alone, through
six Poverty Reduction Support Credits.
GNA
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