The government of Ghana has celebrated the 60th anniversary of the country’s partnership with the World Bank.
Ghana in 1957 joined a group of less than 50 countries at the time as a member nation on the World Bank and over the last six decades, benefited from a total of more than US$ 9 billion in direct grants as well as a host of other funding in major public projects or indirect support programmes with the countries private sector.
Recounting the mutual gains from the country’s partnership with the global banker at launch of the anniversary, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta noted that the Ghana-World Bank relationship has contributed significantly to the country as well as the international banking institution.
He however pointed out more often over the last 60 years, the policies and laws has been rather imposing on the country as well as most of its other member countries (especially the developing ones), hence there is need for the World Bank to review some of its laws to give Ghana the flexibility needed to challenge some economic modules imposed on it.
“We have a slight difficulty with the bank. We joined the World Bank in 1957 and therefore fell into a certain group. This means we can never become executive directors all our lives. I think that is an issue that we need to think about to see what it is that we can do,†he said.
He challenged the World Bank to part ways with its predominantly old-style bureaucracy and adopt a more flexible approach in its relationship with the developing ones: reiterating the fact that the international bank must be reorganized to reflect the demands or its preparedness to meet global economic challenges of the 21st century. Â