Sub-Sahara Africa gets over $7.4 billion of financing from World Bank
The World Bank Group’s total commitments to sub-Sahara Africa for fiscal year 2015 (July 2014 to June 2015) amounted to about $15 billion.
Commitments by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA) amounted to $11.570 billion for 103 projects in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the Bank’s annual report.
An amount of $7.41 billion was disbursed for the region in fiscal year 2015.
The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development disbursed $816 million of its $1.2 billion commitment and the International Development Association disbursed about $6.59 billion of its $10.36 billion commitment.
The portfolio of projects under implementation at the end of the fiscal year 2015 was $51.4 billion.
The IBRD’s commitments and disbursements represent an increase of over 100 per cent from the previous fiscal year for which $420 million was committed and $335 million was disbursed, due to the World Bank Group’s goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030.
Human development constituted the highest portion of Bank’s support to Africa: 22 per cent, followed by financial and private sector development (15 per cent), Public Sector Governance (12 per cent) and Social Protection and Risk Management (12 per cent).
The Bank’s activity in Africa for fiscal year 2015 included supporting regional integration, addressing development-related drivers of conflict, increasing access to power, boosting agriculture, and designing and implementing economic recovery plans for countries affected by the Ebola epidemic.
According to the Bank’s annual report, more than $1.6 billion was mobilized in assistance to Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone following the 2014 Ebola outbreak, to help them provide treatment, contain the contagion, improve public health systems and mitigate the economic impact of the crisis.
The World Bank Group says it is now seeking to attract private investment into Nigeria’s power sector to increase installed generation capacity by about 1,000 megawatts. It is also supporting an 80 megawatt regional hydroelectric project at Rusumo Falls in Rwanda for Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania.
By Emmanuel Odonkor
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