World Bank approves US$55m grant for Somalia

MOGADISHU — The World Bank has approved a 55 million US dollar grant to support Somalia's economic recovery through continued fiscal and other economic policy reforms.

Hugh Riddell, World Bank country manager for Somalia, said the policies would strengthen fiscal management and promote inclusive private sector-led growth."The budget support will help protect lives and livelihoods and strengthen the capacity of Somali institutions to respond to the triple crisis of COVID-19 pandemic, locust invasion and flooding that threaten to derail Somalia’s reform programme and its emergence from fragility," Riddell said in a statement issued on Wednesday.

The supplemental financing helps Somalia ease the effects of the global COVID-19

crisis and continue implementing the reform programme supported by the Somalia re-engagement and reform supplemental Development Policy Financing (DPF). According to the lender, the DPF delivers critically needed financing for Somalia's revised 2020 budget, which allocates funds for an integrated and national response to the pandemic, including increased grants to sub-national governments to ensure continued service delivery.

Somali finance minister Abdirahman Beileh said the revised budget expands cash transfers to vulnerable households and provides a substantial increase in grants to sub-national governments to help them respond to the pandemic in the face of declining revenue.”