Gambia to move facilitate amelioration in the electricity and telecommunication sectors
The World Bank Board of Executive Directors approved on the 14 May a $30 million development policy grant to support The Gambia’s struggles to improve debt and public investment management, improve financial viability and service delivery in the energy and telecom sectors, and improve the flexibility and governance framework of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs).
”This first in a series of two programmatic Development Policy Operations supports The Gambia’s efforts to undertake fundamental reforms to improve fiscal management for better public service delivery,” said Elene Imnadze, World Bank Resident Representative.
*This Development Policy Operation will ensure public investment projects are appraised as per National Development Plan priorities and support the adoption of a new procurement bill to eliminate the use of single source procurement and tighten the emergency clause for its use*
The financing will also help improve the financial and operational fulfilment of the energy effectiveness in order to provide cheaper, more reliable and cleaner energy.
Additionally, it will also help the reservation of the telecom infrastructure and restructuring of the SOEs in that sector to improve the digital economy.
“This operation will support the government in strengthening fiscal transparency and reducing fiscal risks and promote a governance framework to ensure long-term sustainability of the SOE sector,” said Mehwish Ashraf, World Bank Country Economist and co-Task Team Leader.
*This first operation is aligned with the development priorities of the Government as reflected in the National Development Plan for 2018-2021 which identifies economic stabilization, growth stimulation and structural transformation as key priorities for The Gambia.*
Source___Standard Newspaper
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