The World Bank has pledged its support to Ghana, under President John Dramani Mahama’s administration, to tackle key developmental issues.
This commitment was made by Ousmane Diagana, Vice President for West and Central Africa at the World Bank, during a high-level delegation visit to President Mahama’s office in Accra on January 8, 2025.
Diagana emphasized the World Bank’s dedication to supporting African countries in developing their nations.
He highlighted the Bank’s focus on becoming a “better bank” before striving to become a “bigger bank.”
This approach prioritises government ownership, client partnership, and knowledge sharing, complementing financial assistance with expertise gained from working with countries worldwide.
Diagana assured that the Bank’s departments would work closely with Ghana to address these challenges, leveraging experiences from similar situations in West African countries like Senegal and Kenya.
“In the last couple of months since the arrival of the new president Ajay Banga, there is a concept that we call the better and bigger World Bank. But we are now focusing on the better bank before actually getting to the bigger bank.
“So with the better bank, obviously the elements of ownership for government, client, partnership will be the order complementing the financial assistance that we are providing with the knowledge aspect because as a global institution, obviously we work with all of the countries and this has allowed us to gain a lot of experience.
“As we mentioned on the formality aspect, how we can bring resources into the economy, making sure that those are not part of financing the economy…In particular in West African countries, this challenge that Ghana is facing in that area is the same that we see in Senegal, Kenya, etc. So we are happy to bring our department working in the area into the conversation with Ghana and see how we can really widen the resource base, making sure that the domestic organisation part of financing the economy also increases.
