World Bank appoints new Ghana Country Director

The World Bank has appointed a new Country Director for Ghana.

Mr. Henry Godfrey Rupiny Kerali, a Ugandan will be based in Ghana and will be responsible for Liberia and Sierra Leone. His appointment became effective July 1, 2015, the Bank says in a press release issued Friday July3, 2015.

He takes over from Mr. Yusupha B. Crookes, who was first appointed in January 2012.

Before being appointed to Ghana, Kerali was the World Bank’s Regional Director for the South Caucasus, based in Georgia.

“He has previously also worked in different regions of the world including Latin America, Africa, East Asia, South Asia, and ECA, and has also served as Sector Manager of the Bank’s transport programme in the ECA Region,” it said.

The release indicates that in this position, his top three priorities will be to: (i) work closely with the three partner countries to provide innovative products and services that respond to their diverse development challenges and contribute to achieving sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction, with a specific emphasis on post-Ebola recovery; (ii) manage the Accra office and lead and support staff and the country management team, working closely with internal and external partners, to enhance results; and (iii) contribute to regional and corporate initiatives.

Mr Kerali, joined the Bank in 2003 in the Infrastructure & Energy Department in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) Region. Before joining the Bank, he was a Professor at the University of Birmingham, England, specializing in the development of transport infrastructure. He led the research of developed economic cost-benefit models for assessing the feasibility of infrastructure investments. He holds a BSc (Eng.) from Makerere University, and MSc and PhD from the University of Birmingham, UK.

He is married with three adult children. As a Professor, he has authored over 100 publications in various books, journals and reports. For leisure, he enjoys playing golf, cycling and Latin dance.

By Emmanuel K Dogbevi