World Bank Group President to tour Africa starting with Sierra Leone

The President of the World Bank Group , Robert Bruce Zoellick, will on Monday January 25 2009 depart Washington DC to start an eight-day three-nation Africa tour aimed at drawing the attention of donors, rich countries and investors on the business opportunities that the continent offers. The trip will also highlight the funding deficit African economies face as they rebuild after conflict and implement stimulus packages in the aftermath of the recent fuel, food and global financial meltdown. Zoellick will head first to Sierra Leone (26-27 January 2010) before travelling to Cote d’Ivoire (27-29 January 2010) and Ethiopia (29 January-3 February 2010).
The central message of Robert Zoellick’s Africa visit this time round which is very much relevant to Sierra Leone is that the huge returns which investors on Africa have realized of recent out of investing in Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs), particularly from the mobile phone services, will be repeated much to the benefit of poor and fragile countries if promising sectors like agriculture, manufacturing, fisheries, transport, tourism and outsourcing also receive adequate injection of capital. Zoellick stresses that Africa’s fragility and other seemingly intractable problems are solvable, hinting that the continent may now be poised as China and India were two decades ago to become the next global growth pool.
In Sierra Leone, Zoellick will meet with President Ernest Bai Koroma and the Cabinet and will visit energy, agriculture and fishery projects that have benefited or are about to benefit from World Bank funding. He will hold working sessions with representatives of the donor community, discuss ways of boosting World Bank support to the government’s anti-corruption efforts and to civil society organizations involved with promoting openness, peace, human rights, equality, transparency, accountability and governance.
Before his departure, Robert Zoellick will brief the media in a press conference between 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. on January 27 2010 in the main hall at the UNIPSIL compound on Signal Hill, Freetown. A bus conveying accredited journalists to the press conference and back will depart the Sierra Leone News Agency (SLENA) office on Lightfoot Boston Street in central Freetown at 1:00 p.m. prompt, implying that boarding of the bus will commence at 12:00 mid-day on a first-come-first-served basis.