The greening of the economy and financial inclusion were the focus of a meeting held on Monday in Tunis between Governor of the Central Bank of Tunisia (BCT), Fethi Zouhair Nouri, and World Bank (WB) Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, Ousmane Dione.
The two officials highlighted the quality of the existing cooperation between Tunisia and the World Bank Group, according to a press release published by the BCT.
They expressed their satisfaction with the progress made and reaffirmed their desire to continue and intensify this financial and technical support cooperation by strengthening the partnership in projects aimed at greening the economy and financial inclusion.
The meeting also focused on the main areas of cooperation between the two institutions.
Nouri praised the quality of the relationship with the World Bank Group, adding that the relationship is “enduring”.
They also underlined the commitment of both parties to strengthen financial and technical relations and discussed the World Bank’s financial, budgetary and technical support to Tunisia.
During the meeting, Zouhair Nouri and Dione stressed the importance of strengthening cooperation, particularly in the context of Tunisia’s economic reforms in the face of dwindling external financial resources.
With regard to Tunisia’s economic and financial development, the two officials examined the possibilities for World Bank budget support to back Tunisia’s efforts to stabilise its economy.
In this context, Nouri pointed out that the Tunisian economy has shown “remarkable resilience”, adding that “even if the forecasts indicate an achievable growth rate of 1.4%, the prospects for strengthening the Tunisian economy would make it possible to exceed this estimate”.
For his part, Dione called for the diversification of resources and the use of financing opportunities offered by the World Bank, both in terms of development projects and programme loans.
Zouhair Nouri and Dione also discussed the ongoing reform process aimed at modernising the Tunisian economy and improving the efficiency of its institutions.
For the Governor of the BCT, the situation is akin to “a process of growth recovery”, and the BCT’s efforts to ensure a reassuring level of foreign exchange reserves, the stability of the national currency and the reduction of inflation are part of this approach.
In this context, he stressed the importance of giving the necessary visibility to the private sector, which he described as “a major player in wealth creation”.
The greening of Tunisia’s financial sector is a “major experiment”
Nouri also highlighted Tunisia’s ambition to develop renewable resources and promote projects to green the economy, particularly in the financial sector, which he described as a “major experiment”.
He suggested that the greening of finance and monetary policy should be included in the World Bank’s training modules for bank managers to improve their skills.
The World Bank’s Vice President for the MENA region welcomed this suggestion, saying it was in line with the Bank’s objective of promoting capacity building.
Dione also offered to provide technical assistance to Tunisia in this area, particularly as this approach had proved successful in the fight against financial exclusion, where the BCT had been supported by the World Bank.
As a result, a series of complementary national projects were launched, combining the digitisation of payments, access to multiple sources of finance and financial inclusion.
They aim to provide the institutional, regulatory and functional guarantees needed to achieve the goal of sustainable and inclusive growth.
The meeting was attended by Jesko S. Hentschel, Country Director for the Maghreb and Malta Department, Cheick-Oumar Sylla, Regional Director of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) for North Africa and the Horn of Africa, Alexandre Arrobbio, Resident Representative of the World Bank Office in Tunisia, and Sarah Morsi, Resident Representative of the IFC, with the participation of senior BCT officials.
