Hamdok flies to Cote d’Ivore to attend World Bank meeting

July 13, 2021 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok, headed Tuesday to Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, to participate in a mini African summit to highlight the need for an ambitious plan by the World Bank to support recovery in Africa.

Last May, World Bank President David Malpass said the Bank and donor countries should consider a supplemental replenishment of the International Development Association (IDA), the concessional lending arm as the coronavirus crisis continues to affect poor countries.

Malpass underscored that the depth of the COVID-19 pandemic had already rendered a record $82 billion IDA19 replenishment too small to help the poorest countries hit by the crisis.

In a statement released earlier this month, the WB said the Abidjan meeting will help identify key priorities for financing in Africa, that will top a financing package for an ambitious IDA20 replenishment.

Sudan’s participation in this summit is the first of its kind in three decades, after Sudan’s removal from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism.

The high-level meeting will be attended by African heads of state and government from Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Mauritania, Madagascar, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo and Uganda.

(ST)