Burundi: the World Bank intends to revive the country

The World Bank has promised to give nearly half a billion US dollars to the Burundian government to improve the living conditions of the Burundian citizens, said the Burundian finance minister. Urban resilience to flooding and climate change in the Gatumba area (western Burundi) is part of this. The agreement signing occured this Monday between the Burundian government and the World Bank in the economic capital Bujumbura.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

The first project that was approved concerns the emergency on urban resilience for the value of 113 million US dollars. Its objective is to respond to the emergency situation and increase resilience to flooding and to improve urban management resilient to climate change in Bujumbura and in the Gatumba area located in Bujumbura-province, the most affected by flooding.

The second project is linked to accelerating access to clean and sustainable energy in Burundi for funding of 100 million US dollars.

Thirdly, it is a plan for preparing responses and resilience to health emergencies in Burundi. It was funded to the tune of $50 million.

The last project is based on the development of human capital in Burundi. An amount of 230 million has been reserved for him. It extends over a period of 5 years.

The World Bank Representative in Burundi Hawa Cissé Wagué indicated that this amount, estimated at nearly half a billion US dollars, will make it possible to “meet the priorities of the government of Burundi”.

“These projects cover quite diverse areas….Given the floods that Burundi has experienced, the urban resilience project also partly responds to a major priority which is to adapt to climate change”, underlined the Representative of the World Bank in Burundi. She believes that the implementation of these projects must be rapid. Hawa Cissé Wagué also wanted to work together with the Ministry of Public Health to make the health system more efficient.

“It is very easy to sign the financing agreements but the most difficult is the implementation. Now we must start running and ensure that these projects are implemented quickly,” insisted Mrs. Wagué.

She further stressed that activities on the ground must begin as soon as possible so that the Burundian population knows that all this amount is being used as planned.

The Burundian Minister in charge of Finance Audace Niyonzima, signatory of these agreements, thanked the World Bank which continues to support the Burundian government. He promised that the four projects will be “immediately executed.”

This promise from the World Bank comes at a time when all the signals in the Burundian economy are red, the local currency continuing to lose its value against the dollar, which worries Burundian leaders less, starting with President Évariste Ndayishimiye who believe that “the Burundian consumer does not need dollars to obtain what they need on the internal market”.