WASHINGTON, December 5, 2017 — The World Bank approved today an International Development Association (IDA)* credit of $125 million in support of Côte d’Ivoire’s efforts to promote sustainable and inclusive growth as well as to increase the economy’s resilience to shocks.
This is the second in a programmatic series of three Development Policy Financing (DPF) operations focusing on critical challenges linked to fiscal policy and key sectors for inclusive growth (education, energy, and cocoa). Specifically, under this operation, on fiscal policy, the elimination of several VAT exemptions will bring a gain of FCFA 18 billion in 2018. In the education sector, the increase in teaching time with a focus on underperforming children will establish a positive correlation between teaching time and performance. On energy, ensuring that the public sector will clear arrears on its electricity bills will help increase the revenues of the energy sector without tariff increases. In the cocoa sector, enhanced transparency will enable the country to mitigate risks and avoid losses to government, exporters, and producers.
“Each pillar of this operation is associated with structural measures that have the potential to support the economic transformation that the economy is currently experiencing, including the willingness to address political economy challenges that had prevented more inclusive and shared growth in recent past,” said Pierre Laporte, World Bank Country Director in Côte d’Ivoire. “There are gains that are going beyond the adoption of laws but rather represent significant and concrete policy changes.”
Since the first DPF operation in this programmatic series, satisfactory progress has been already achieved in the targeted areas. The number of registered taxpayers increased from 78,306 in 2016 to 85,152 by mid-2017. The average delays in public procurement felt from about 160 days in 2014 to 102 days in June 2017. In the education sector, the repetition rate dropped to 11 percent at the end of 2016, compared to over 15 percent in 2015.
The DPF series is an integral element of the World Bank Group (WBG) Country Partnership Framework (CPF) covering the fiscal years 2016-2019, and supporting the National Development Plan 2016-2020.
* The World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), established in 1960, helps the world’s poorest countries by providing grants and low to zero-interest loans for projects and programs that boost economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve poor people’s lives. IDA is one of the largest sources of assistance for the world’s 75 poorest countries, 39 of which are in Africa. Resources from IDA bring positive change to the 1.5 billion people who live in IDA countries. Since 1960, IDA has supported development work in 113 countries. Annual commitments have averaged about $18 billion over the last three years, with about 54 percent going to Africa.
