The World Bank Regional Vice President for West and Central Africa, Ousmane Diagana, in his two days working visit to Sierra Leone, reiterated the Bank’s commitment to strengthen its bilateral relationship with the Government of Sierra Leone and to also increase the Bank’s support to key sectors in the Medium- Term Development Plan.
Ousmane Diagana held series of engagements and discussions with the President, H.E Rtd. Brg. Dr. Julius Maada Bio, Government Ministers, private Sector Players, CSOs, and development partners.
In most of his statements, he expressed delight over the progress Sierra Leone is making amidst the challenges the country is facing
He applauded the Government for its Human Capital Development Programmes on Education, strides in the Health, Agriculture sectors and improving the standards of living of vulnerable groups.
The Minister of Finance, Dennis K Vandi, in his statement thanked the Bank for approving the disbursement of 2021 budget support of $75 million, stating that such will enable the Government to deliver basic
services to the people of Sierra Leone. “We are confident with the support of the World Bank Country Office, we can complete the implementation of the reform actions by June 2022 so that we can start work on the third series of the DPO before the end of 2022,” he added.
He reiterated Government’s commitment to the implementation of policy reforms actions under the Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) and Debt Transparency. The Minister further emphasises the need for more support in the water sector to ensure access to clean drinking water in both rural and urban areas, thus calling on the Bank to support the water sector under the IDA 20 funding cycle.
Dennis K. Vandi further expressed appreciation to the Bank for the initial funding for the construction of four rural bridges out of the thirteen bridges for which feasibility studies have been done.
Speaking on the Bank’s current portfolio in Sierra Leone, the Vice President for West and Central Africa ,Ousmane Diagana, stated that the current project portfolio is about $956 million covering projects on youth empowerment and safety net, digital transformation, lands, ferry crossing bridges, budget support, energy, health system strengthening and accountable governance.
He further stated that for the financial year FY2023 there are several projects in the pipeline, additional financing on energy $50 million, additional financing on education, $50 million, DPO- Budget support of $75 million, and construction of remaining 8 ferry crossing rural bridges of $50 million; the Bank is already financing 4 ferry crossing bridges of Gendema, Manowa Ferry, Mattru-Jong Ferry and Tomparie, for which the Procurement is well advanced.
The visit of the Vice President of the World Bank to Sierra Leone at this time according to Sahr Jusu Financial Secretary is a demonstration of the level of confidence the Bank and other development partners have in the new Direction Government. He committed to improving transparency and accountability as well the performance of the country’s CPIA ratings to be able to access additional resources.
From now to June this year, the Bank is committed to approve 3 new projects of $130.0m-the Youth Empowerment and Safety net of $40.0m, Lands Development Project of $40.0 million and digital transformation project under the Information Ministry of $50.0 million. The World Bank’s 2022 Financial Year (which ends in June) has committed $130.0 million, Pipeline projects stand at $225.0 million with the existing total ongoing projects funding of nearly $900.0 million bringing the Bank’s portfolio to about $1.31 billion by June 2023.
