World Bank building inaugurated in Accra

The Vice-President, Mr Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, has inaugurated the World Bank’s new office building in Accra, with a call for increased collaboration between the bank and the government for the benefit of the people.

While admitting that the new office complex, located at the Independence Avenue in Accra, represented the bank’s long term commitment to the development of the country, the Vice President said relationships between the two sides needed to be sustained to help advance Ghana’s economic agenda.

The building will provide offices for staff of the bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, which were previously housed in separate offices.

The common facilities in the building will allow staff to better co-ordinate their resources and services in pursuit of the bank’s twin goals of ending extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity.

Mr Amissah-Arthur lauded the bank and its partner agencies for their financial support over the years, explaining that such initiatives had contributed immensely to the economic growth of the country.

He was particularly impressed with the IFC’s growing financial support and noted that the building symbolised the new and changing relationship that the bank had with Africa and Ghana in particular.”

The Vice-President of the IFC in-charge of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), Latin America and the Caribbean, Mr Jean Philippe Prosper, lauded Ghana’s economic progress, saying “Ghana is the African nation that was at the forefront of colonial independence more than half a century ago, and is today at the forefront of the African economic renaissance.”

“Ghana’s growth in the first decade of this century averaged more than six per cent. Today, that growth is even higher and is expected to continue” he said.

By Timothy Gobah & Maxwell Adombila Akalaare/Daily Graphic/Ghana