Ensure development assistance to Africa reflects to the needs of individual recipient countries - John Kuma to World Bank

Ghana's Deputy Finance Minister, John Ampontuah Kuma, has called on the World Bank Group to ensure that the development assistance from the bank to the African continent reflects the needs of individual recipient countries.

The Deputy Minister who is also the Member of Parliament for Ejisu has therefore appealed to the World Bank Group to consider remodeling their operations and come out with development assistance measures that will prioritize the needs of Africans.

The Minister has also expressed concerns over how local companies and consultants are sidelined in projects finance by the institution and called on the leadership of the World Bank to address these challenges.

John Ampontuah Kuma said this while representing Ghana's Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, at the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund (IMF) caucus meeting held at Sal, Cape Verde.

The two-day event, which begun on July 6 and ended on July 8, 2023, attracted delegates, speakers, and experts from across Africa, as well as representatives from the IMF and the World Bank Group (WBG).

The conference aims to explore new modalities and mechanisms for financing economic development in Africa, with a specific focus on public debt as a financing instrument for growth, climate finance, energy, and private sector development.

Contributing to discussions at the conference, the Ejisu MP was emphatic on the need for the World Bank Group to allow full participation of indigenous African companies on the Group's financed projects in Africa.

"The quotation from Nelson Mandela, a former president of South Africa which has already been quoted, sums up my message and it says if you want to do something for me, do it with me, so i want to emphasized that, it is very important for the World Bank Group to involve local companies in their assistance projects”, he said.

John Ampontuah Kuma used the occasion on behalf of Ghana thanked the World Bank Group and the IMF for their contributions to the development of Ghana and Africa.