Guinea reviews World Bank-funded projects to facilitate disbursement of funds

The portfolio of projects funded by the World Bank is in the process of being reviewed in the Guinean capital, Conakry, to facilitate disbursement of more funds to the country.

Officials from various Guinean ministries, including planing, economy, public health and agriculture ministries, have been meeting World Bank officials since Wednesday to examine projects funded by the financial institution in the country.

Guinea which has been a member of the World Bank since 1963, has benefited from funding from the Bank in various sectors, especially the mining industry as well as socioeconomic sectors such as education, health, environment and economic governance.

According to a technical note published on Thursday by World Bank representatives in Guinea, since the end of military transition in 2010, Guinea has received about 500 million U.S. dollars that was used to restore macroeconomic stability.

Regarding the sectorial distribution of projects funded by the World Bank in Guinea, it was noted that a lot of the money went into human development, accounting for 44 percent of the funding, against 33 percent for water and energy sectors, 8 percent for telecommunication, 7 percent for governance and the mining sector, 6 percent for rural development and 2 percent for the private sector.

During the Ebola epidemic that broke out in 2014 in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the World Bank approved an emergency funding of 230 million dollars to support the regional fight against the disease.

Out of the amount, Guinea received 153 million dollars that included 50 million dollars in form of budgetary support to Guinea's public treasury.

During the ongoing review of World Bank-funded projects, the institution's representative in Guinea noted that cooperation between Guinea and the Bank was "an active cooperation" and that the portfolio of funded projects doubled in the last four years, moving from 200 million dollars to over 400 million dollars.

However, according to the secretary general in Guinea's planing and international cooperation ministry, the process of disbursement of funds and absorption capacity remains low in the country.

According to Radji, out of 500 million dollars that has been mobilized, 300 million dollars is yet to be disbursed due to fraudulent tendering procedures and lack of a follow-up mechanism for the projects. Endit