The Bank's Vice President for Africa, Obiageli Ezekwesili said this in Accra, Ghana during a-three day working visit to that country.

The target sectors for this future lending, according to the Bank's Country Director for Ghana, Ishac Diwan, are water and sanitation, agriculture and fisheries, energy, natural resource management, transport and budget support.

During visit, Ghana’s President, Prof Atta-Mills and Ezekwesili discussed issues bordering on natural resource management as a key component of macro economic policy. She reiterated the importance of citizens' participation in the development processes in complementing government efforts in finding solutions to Ghana's macroeconomic challenges.

Atta-Mills noted that an important ingredient in dealing with macro economic problems is transparency and the need for citizens to know the true state of the economy and what the government is doing to solve the problems.

Ezekwesili said: “it is obvious that government and people of this country have been making tremendous efforts to lift themselves and future generations out of the vicious cycle of poverty and hardship, however, the impact of the current global financial crisis on Ghana calls for macroeconomic measures that would ensure that the growth that Ghana has enjoyed over the past decade and more is not negatively affected, but is rather sustained to help improve the standard of living of the people.”

Currently, the World Bank-financed portfolio for Ghana is among the biggest in Africa, with 26 active projects which have an undisbursed balance of about US$700 million of interest free loans, a sizeable proportion of which can be front-loaded.


The Bank, which is one of Ghana's leading development partners, indicated its readiness to assist the newly-elected Ghanaian government in any way possible to minimize the impact of the global financial meltdown and economic crisis.

The Bank's private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) has also provided assistance to businesses pursuing projects in the oil and gas, mining, banking, leasing, education, housing and SME sectors in that country.