Ethiopian Review

Addis Ababa – The World Bank (WB) Country Director for Ethiopia and Sudan Kenichi Ohashi said the bank is looking for ways to increase financial assistance to African countries.

The director said at a press conference here on Friday that though the economic and financial crunch has not surfaced its impact this time around, it seems to be sensed in the coming times.

He said the impact is gradual and the WB is looking ways to increase its financial assistance to African countries to enable the counties resist the challenges caused by the crises.

However, he underscored that countries need to exert more efforts to address the current crisis by themselves side by side the assistance of IMF, WB and other donor agencies.

The director said commitment of WB to Ethiopia has been increasing and the country is receiving substantial amount of financial assistance.

The bank is supporting Ethiopia in wide range of development activities including infrastructure, watershed management, safety-net, capacity building, health, the private sector, and protection of basic services , among others.

It is to be recalled that Board of Executive Directors of the Bank recently approved 245 million USD International Development Association credit to Ethiopia to support continued effort to restore and expand the country’s road network.

“The main road network is the backbone of Ethiopian economy. We are confident that Ethiopia will continue to make good progress in the road sector, as ERA is well known for its strong implementation capacity.” , said Yoshimichi Kawasumi, the Bank’s Task Team Leader for the project according to the recent WB press release.

- ENA