By Lamin Kujabi
His Excellency President Adama Barrow, on Friday, 13th September received at State House, a delegation led by Ousmane Diagana, Vice President of World Bank for Western and Central Africa; and Sergio Pimento, the Vice President of International Finance Corporation (IFC) for Africa, a private sector arm of the Bank Group.
The delegation was accompanied to State House by Honourable Seedy Keita, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs; Honourable Nani Juwara, Minister of Petroleum and Energy; and Honourable Rohey John Manjang, Minister of Environment, Climate, Change and Natural Resources.
After the meeting with the President, the Finance Minister told the press that this was the first time The Gambia received a joint mission of the World Bank Group involving both the vice presidents of the World Bank and IFC.
He recognised that the level of engagement of The Gambia and World Bank is shooting to a new height, and that the Bank is committed to supporting the country.
The portfolios of World Bank Group are 520 million US Dollar and 75 million US Dollars for national and regional projects respectively, meant for development of diverse sectors of the economy; including health, infrastructure, education, agriculture, transportation, and climate.
The Minister said the President had expressed government’s appreciation of Group’s support and urged them to do more.
Ousmane Diagana, the Vice President of World Bank for Western and Central Africa, said The Gambia is a very important partner to the World Bank; hence in the last four years, it has doubled its investment in the country in critical sectors like energy, human capital development, and food security, among others.
“We are very optimistic … about Gambia’s growth. The country enjoys peace and stability and a youthful population. The Gambia believes in regional solution to development,” Mr Diagana said.
Sergio Pimento, Vice President of International Finance Corporation (IFC) stated the need to bring private and public sectors together, to address the ever-more complex and emerging development challenges. “The President really stressed the role of private sector as a critical enabler of [the country’s] development,” he stated.
He went on: “Creating job is a priority of many countries. This is a country with a young population. We need to provide proper tools for them to participate”.
Mr Pimento informed that the IFC is also working with the World Bank in a business environment for job creation.
