Ghana will receive $229 million from the World Bank to fund two projects to aid in the acceleration of health and education programs.
The Maternal and Child Health and Nutrition Improvement Project will receive US$73 million while the Ghana Secondary Education Improvement Project gets US$156 million, as approved by the Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank Group on May 20, 2014.
The two projects were prepared by the Government of Ghana with the support of the World Bank and seek to boost significantly access to high impact education and health services.
In a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency on Thursday, the World Bank Country Director, Yusupha Crookes, expressed the delight of the group to be able to support these timely interventions by the Government of Ghana to save lives and extend opportunities to some of the country’s most vulnerable citizens.
“A development agenda which focuses directly on people and seeks to promote shared wellbeing is surely the right thing to pursue”, he added.
An additional amount of US$50 million in support of the Ghana Social Opportunities Project is set also to be released, pending its presentation to the World Bank Board on May 27, 2014.
He further expressed the hope that these projects will help to bring about good and tangible results in the form of more rapid reductions in maternal and child mortality, better and equitable educational outcomes as well as an acceleration of the social protection program.
“As the performance and results unfold during implementation, the Bank will consider providing expanded support for the program”.
The funding is to facilitate the achievement of all the health related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targets, increase access to senior secondary education in underserved districts and improve quality in low-performing senior high schools (SHS) in Ghana.
Credit: GNA