The Office of the World Bank in Guinea resumed operations in Guinea Thursday, promising to release, over the next 18 months, a budget of US$ 168 million to support development projects planned by Dakar.
PANA recalled that the bank’s operations were suspended in 2008 after the coup that followed the death of President Lansana Conte.
According to Mamadou Saliou Diallo, a staff of the bank’s office in Conakry, the disbursement of the amount is subject to certain conditions, including the auditing of public procurement and the dissemination of the report on corruption in Guinea, among others.
“The financial management, procurement and disbursement procedures should be considered as a whole,” said the bank, which Tuesday and Wednesday, co-organized with the government, a workshop on the reactivation of the World Bank in Guinea.
At the end of the meeting, the bank offered the government a budget of US$ 34 million to support a proposed underwater cable to enable it establish a broad national coverage via the internet.
The financial institution promised to assist Guinea in its “Interim Strategy for 2011-2012” after it said that the implementation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) has been difficult and that poverty rate has increased from 49 per cent in 2009 to 58 per cent in 2010.
On education, the bank said that the number of primary school teachers has increased significantly, reaching 1,500 per year since 2008, a situation that has threatened the achievement by Guinea of the initiative of Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC)
