Africa-Press – Cape verde. The Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Cape Verde told Lusa today that the World Bank is expected to provide budget support of US$25 million in the area of capacity building this year.
“We are negotiating so that we can have this budget support this year, which will be used to finance transformative actions”, said Olavo Correia in an interview with Lusa at the end of the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which end today in Washington.
The US$25 million in support, around €23.1 million, will be channelled “to the areas of connectivity, climate and digital action, human capital and the private sector and economic diversification, in addition to improving the strengthening of institutions and the dematerialisation of the economy, through online administrative procedures”, said Olavo Correia, reinforcing the objective of Cape Verde having 100% digital public services.
The World Bank’s portfolio in Cape Verde is close to US$300 million, to which must be added another US$100 million, or €92 million, from the International Finance Corporation, the Bank’s arm for financing private sector operations, said the minister, who will be the chairman of the board of governors of the World Bank and the IMF during 2025.
“The World Bank’s portfolio in Cape Verde comprises a diversified portfolio, it is very important for us in terms of the financial envelope, but we have to do even better so that we can have an even better implementation capacity, and there is also a reform at the level of the World Bank’s operating model”, said Olavo Correia.
Among the reforms underway at the World Bank to improve and increase support for the countries most in need, Olavo Correia highlighted the initiative to give “more scale, more speed and more impact” to projects and the creation of a fund for project preparation.
“Countries often only start carrying out studies when they sign financing contracts, when it should be the other way around: first the feasibility study, and then when the contract is signed, the project starts the next day, but since there are no resources to create the project, the opposite is done, and this creates serious problems” in terms of the slow implementation of projects.
In addition, he concluded, the World Bank also decided to “create a capacity to help set up an institutional and governance framework to accelerate the creation of projects, bringing together the academic and training worlds”, which will allow countries to present projects that are more appealing to financiers.
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