APA – Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) – For more than a year, the Bretton Woods institution has resumed disbursements suspended after the coup of September 2022.
The World Bank Group’s Vice-President for West and Central Africa, Ousmane Diagana, visited Ouagadougou in early March 2024. He said he had come to familiarise himself with the World Bank’s cooperation programme and commitments in Burkina Faso.
Diagana expressed his satisfaction with the progress made under this cooperation, which he said was satisfactory and whose projects were in line with the country’s priorities.
He revealed that his institution had disbursed $220 million, or around 133 billion CFA francs, to Burkina Faso over the last eight months.
This amount is a sure response to the resilience of Burkina Faso’s economy through the creation of thousands of jobs and the improvement of people’s living conditions.
The two parties also explored the prospects for further enhancing cooperation, in particular the reforms to be carried out in the context of continued budget support, given the good quality of Burkina Faso’s public finance management.
The World Bank Group operates in Burkina Faso through technical and financial cooperation for the implementation of development projects and programmes, budget support, and studies and analyses.
The World Bank’s portfolio in Burkina Faso includes 29 projects with an estimated value of US$3.8 billion, of which US$2 billion was undisbursed at the time of the coup in January 2022.
Following the overthrow of Roch March Christian Kaboré by a group of soldiers led by Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Damiba, the World Bank suspended its partnership with the country before resuming it in May of that year.
The coup led by Captain Ibrahim Traoré last September further strained relations with the institution.
The World Bank Group resumed disbursements in February 2023.
DS/ac/lb/as/APA