Accra, Ghana, January 17, 2020//-World Bank today signed four agreements with the Government of Ghana worth about $570 million. Out of this amount, $557 million are credits while just over $12 million are grants.
The projects align well with Government’s priorities for improving the private sector space, enhancing resilience and supporting human capital and ensuring sustainability of its natural resources, Pierre Frank Laporte, World Bank Country Director for Ghana, explained at the ceremony in Accra.
The four projects
The Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development project (GARID) is a $200 million, multi-sector and transformative urban project which aims to support Greater Accra to become a cleaner, safer and more resilient city.
It is the first one in the planned series of projects and will be implemented over the next six years. It focuses on reducing flood risk along the Odaw river basin and three selected low-income communities namely Nima, Agbobloshie and Akweteman, all in the Accra metropolis.
It is anticipated that phase I of the GARID Project, particularly flood warning and response system development, will benefit close to 2.5 million people living within the Odaw River Basin and 4.7 million people living in Greater Accra Region, Mr Laporte said.
He noted that about 161,000 people at high risk of flooding from a 10- year flood in the Odaw Basin will directly benefit from structural flood mitigation measures; over1 people will directly benefit by 2050.
About half a million (500,000) people from low-income communities will benefit from solid waste collection improvements and final disposal capacity improvements.
Whereas about 73,000 people from low-income communities at high risk of flooding will benefit from improved basic infrastructure and services.
The $150 million Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project which Mr Laporte explained aims to improve the quality of education in low-performing basic education schools and strengthen equity and accountability of Ghanaeducation sector.
It will address strategic reforms in teacher training and school management, school leadership, learning assessment and student-centered interventions. An estimated 3.8 million beneficiaries (mostly teachers and students) in close to10,000 public schools will benefit from the project, including special schools for persons with disability.
“At the end of the six-years implementation period we expect to see improved teaching practices, improved learning outcomes and strengthened data-driven accountability systems for school management”.
The objective of $200m Ghana Economic Transformation Project is to promote private investments and firm growth in non-resource-based sectors of the Ghanaian economy.
The project according to Mr Laporte would work towards improving the business environment to facilitate firm growth and investments, improving spatial and industrial planning to leverage more private sector investment, and improving institutional and financial support to facilitate the growth of globally competitive SMEs and start-ups.
The primary beneficiaries of this project are Ghanaian growth-oriented SMEs, entrepreneurs and investors, in addition to line agencies whose capacity to execute their sub-programs will be strengthened, he assured.
The fourth and final project is the Additional Financing for the Ghana Forest Investment Program – Enhancing Natural Forest and Agroforest Landscapes Project.
This is a $12.4 million grant and $7 million loan project.
The project seeks to reduce forest loss and degradation in selected landscapes in Ghana’s High Forest Zone, where deforestation is at the highest.
The project targets the major drivers of deforestation and forest degradation by promoting sustainable cocoa production to stop the expansion of cocoa production into forested areas.
It also targets reclaiming mined-out sites to address the impact of (illegal) artisanal mining on forests; and encouraging the participation of small and medium sized enterprises in forest plantation to reduce pressure on natural forests and meet the construction, housing and furniture needs of Ghana’s growing economy.
The project expects to improve the livelihood of 100,000 people; put over 400,000 ha under sustainable forest management; and yield 4.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) of emission reductions (or about 10% of Ghana’s annual greenhouse gas emissions).
Committed to strengthen partnership
“The World Bank is committed to strengthen our partnership even further going forward. We will work with you hand in hand to ensure that these projects, as well as others already ongoing, are implemented timely and effectively.
This will in turn result in efficient use of resources, achieve the projects’ objectives, and most importantly positively impact the lives of the people, communities and institutions”. Mr Laporte stressed.
“Project delays are costly, and we encourage the teams to identify implementation challenges and work collaboratively with other government organizations as well as with the Bank teams to resolve them”.
He noted that the World Bank Group is developing a new Country Partnership Framework for Ghana that will map out their engagement for the next six years to continue support Government’s development priorities, leveraging the World Bank Group’s comparative advantage and resources.
“We will aim to bring large, impactful and transformative projects for more impactful results”.
African Eye Report
