WB presents Country Policy Institutional Assessment report in Accra

Mr Andrew Dabalen (right) and other guests launching
the CPIA Africa report Photo: Ebo Gorman

The World Bank (WB) yesterday presented its Country Policy Institutional Assessment (CPIA) report and commended Ghana for its increased investment in social services and protection.

According to the Bank, it said Ghana over the years had increased investment in education, health and social interventions such as the Livelihood Empowerment against Poverty and the School Feeding Programme.

The CPIA, a yearly analytical report published by the World Bank, focused on all Sub-Saharan African countries, dwells on thematic areas such as economic management, structural policies, social inclusion and equity and public sector management and institutions.

Under the theme “Structural Reforms for a Vibrant Private Sector,” it highlights the limited capacity for public sector driven growth in the region and provides examples of best practices across the range of the CPIA criteria for promoting private sector growth.

Speaking at the launch of the report in Accra yesterday, the World Bank’s Africa Region Chief Economist, Andrew Debalen, said Ghana performed well in the social inclusion and equity due to its increase investment particularly on education and health and spending on the vulnerable.

He said improvement in social services were important to promote social inclusion and lift people out of poverty to leapfrog the development of the country.

On economic management, Mr Debalen said Ghana was on the right track and beginning to improve.

He said the economic reforms being pursued with the government and agreement with the official creditors on debt restructuring would help the country to have access to the international capital market.

The Chief Economist for Africa urged African governments to increase investment in Information, Communication and Technology infrastructure to reduce the cost of digital technology services.

That, he said would increase the adoption of digital technology to accelerate the growth of the African economies, indicating that the high cost of data, poor infrastructure remain a barrier to digital and technology adoption.

Mr Debalen said digital technology held a lot of potential and opportunities for Africa’s growth and the private sector businesses could use digital to reach a lot of customers.

To this end, he said African governments must invest in the digital skills acquisition of the youth to help create digital products which would suit the needs of Africa.

The Acting World Bank Country Director, Patrick Mullen, said the Ghanaian had authorities committed to policy reforms to strengthen the central bank’s independence, which contributed to reducing year-over-year inflation from 54 per cent in December 2022 to 23 per cent in December 2023.

He said the government also adopted a medium-term revenue mobilisation strategy and recently committed to reinstating its fiscal rule in the medium term, while strengthening the independence of its Fiscal Council.

The Acting World Bank Country Director said Ghana had also made some strong reforms in improving private sector access, including the Office of the Registrar of Companies Act, which entered into force last year, and increased efforts to support access to finance for small and medium-size enterprises.

“Indeed, these measures to support macroeconomic stability are central to creating conditions supportive of the private sector,” Mr Mullen stated.

BY KINGSLEY ASARE