Accra, June 13, GNA - The World Bank and Ghana have signed an agreement for 100 million dollars to support the implementation of programmes in the 2008 Budget and social welfare packages announced by the Government.

The amount includes 90 million dollars, to support programmes under the 2008 Budget and 10 million dollars to support the mitigation measures announced by Government to address the rising cost of living and to scale up Government social welfare programmes at protecting the consumption level of the poor.

Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Finance Minister and Ishac Diwan, World Bank Country Director, signed the agreement.

Briefing the press at the signing ceremony in Accra, Mr Baah-Wiredu said the money made available under the Poverty Reduction Support Credit would support programmes and policy measures outlined in the Ghana Growth and Poverty- Reduction Strategy (GPRS II) and reform measures agreed upon in the MDBS Matrix with the country's development partners. Mr Baah Wiredu said due to the rising oil prices, Government spent 680 million dollars between January and April 2008 on oil imports compared to 632.97 million dollars for the same period last year. He said the implementation of the mitigation measures announced by the Government to lessen the impact of high food prices meant government was forfeiting significant revenue, which should have gone into other development projects.

Mr Diwan said the Bank decided to provide such a support to the Government to ensure that the poor did not sink into abject poverty. He said under the social protection measures, the Government's Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) would receive a boost to reach an additional 1,818 households and ensure that children remained in school and were vaccinated.

There would also be the broadening of the essential community action package in the poorest regions and providing funds to exempt the poor and pregnant women from paying the premium for the National Health Insurance Scheme, he said.

Mr Diwan said these operations were focusing on accelerating the kind of growth that benefited the poor, supported the delivery of basic services, especially water to the citizens across the country, and continued to work towards better and more inclusive governance. MDBS is a harmonized partnership framework in which the government and a number of its development partners committed themselves to provide direct funding for the implementation of the Ghana Growth and Poverty-Reduction Strategy through the annual budget.

Since its inception in 2003, a total of 1.7 billion dollars has been disbursed under the framework, with over 700 million dollars coming form the World Bank alone, through six Poverty Reduction Support Credits. REA/BDB