The Regional Vice President for West and Central Africa of the World Bank, Ousmane Diagana in his two days working visit to Sierra Leone has not only reiterated the Bank’s commitment to strengthening its bilateral relationship with the Bio led administration but also the Bank’s support increased to key sectors in the Medium Term Development Plan.
Mr. Ousmane Diagana came to Freetown on Wednesday 9th February 2022 and since then he had series of engagements and discussions with the President 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, and the vulnerable groups.
The Minister of Finance Dennis K Vandi in his statement thanked the Bank for approving the disbursement of 2021 budget support of US$75 million, stating that this enabled 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 commitment to the implementation of policy reforms actions under the Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) and Debt Transparency. The Minister further emphasized 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.
Mr. 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 completed.
Speaking on the Bank’s current portfolio in Sierra Leone, 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 FY 2023 there are several projects on the pipeline, additional financing on energy US$50 million, additional financing on education, US$50 million, DPO Budget support of US$75 million, and construction of remaining eight ferry crossing rural bridges of US$50 million; the Bank is already financing four 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, the 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 three new projects of US$130m -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), commitment of $130.0 million, Pipeline projects of $225.0 million with the existing total ongoing projects funding of nearly $900.0 million brings the Bank’s portfolio to about $1.31 billion by June 2023.
