World Bank Group will be organising a two-day Development Finance Forum (DFF) on Monday 29th May as the World Bank has put $2.5 billion USD for private sector investment in the country.
This money is part of International Development Association (IDA18) IFC-MIGA Private Sector Window (PSW) to mobilise private sector investment in IDA only countries with a focus on fragile and conflict affected states.
The Country Manager of the World Bank, Parminda Brar and the Resident Representative of IFC, Frank Ajilor, explained to journalists about the importance of the forum which will be held in three West African countries; Freetown, Abidjan and Accra.
“Under IDA 18, $2.5b will be available for supporting the private sector in countries like Sierra Leone. This is a good opportunity for the private sector to tap into funding from the World Bank Group to be able to develop industry and investment in the country,” the World Bank Country Manager said.
Brar furthered, “this forum is where they will be discussing private sector investment in different sectors in the country”, as he said, “over 100 companies will attend the forum where they will present their ideas which will be discussed”.
The focus sectors will be agriculture, energy, mining and infrastructure “as these are the large sectors which will require lot of funding”, Brar said.
The Country Manager disclosed, “one of the biggest challenges facing Sierra Leone is getting adequate financing for private sector projects. I think a lot of the private sector believes that the risk is too high to enter Sierra Leone. That is why under our new facility this programme will start on the first of July for the next three years”.
Frank Ajilore said the $2.5 is not only for Sierra Leone but for IDA countries but that fragile countries will be given preference. He said, “The money is to attract significant amounts of private sector financing… People should look at the numbers that can come from private sector financing and other sources of financing that can come into this package”.
Echoing, “this should be looked at as an anchor that brings in many other financing into areas where under normal circumstances commercial financing will not be applicable or will not be worthwhile.”
The PSW facility has four components which Ajiro said includes, Risk Mitigation Facilities (RMF), to crowd in private investment in large infrastructure. The MIGA Guarantee Facility (MGF), the Local Currency Facility (LCF) and the Blended Finance Facility (BFF).
Why this forum is different from others Parminda Brar said, “there has been a lot of conferences in Sierra Leone, a lot of meetings but what makes this different is the World Bank Group is putting money on the table. All they need is good projects coming from Sierra Leone. In many other conference or investors come with a lot of good proposals but the monies are not available and this is a major problem”.
By Betty Milton
Thursday May 25, 2017.
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