Sérgio Pimenta, IFC Vice President for the Middle East and Africa, says Ghana can be one of the fastest-growing economies in the world if the government maintains its prudent economic management system.

He noted that looking at the financial performance of Ghana – the numbers, the macro framework and the situation in the country, had been very positive and the outlook remains very positive.

“I believe that Ghana has even the potential to be one of the fastest-growing economies in the world next year if all growth continues in the right directions,” Mr. Pimenta stated during a media interaction in Accra.

“There is a very good background for private sector investment to come to Ghana. But when we look at the level of investments, both domestic investments and foreign sector investments, clearly there is an opportunity to even do more, this is why IFC can do more in attracting quality investments of companies with all the best practices who can come in and contribute to the development of the country, creating jobs for women, men, and youth of the country,” he added.

The IFC is a sister organization of the World Bank and member of the World Bank Group.

It is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets.

“Ghana is a very important country for us, it is one of the largest exposures in the continent. It’s among the top five countries in terms of exposure for IFC in Africa,” he said.

He said the IFC had committed over the last five years about two million dollars of financing to Ghana.

He said the IFC had been active in several wide range of sectors of Ghana’s economy such as infrastructure, financing institutions, agribusiness and tourism.

Mr Pimenta noted that his predictions about Ghana’s prospects for next year were based on the trajectories that the Government had been taking in terms of policies and reforms that had allowed the growth of the economy; adding that Ghana’s sustained growth over the last few years was very remarkable.

On the way forward Mr. Pimenta urged the Government to continue with the sound economic policies, especially the fiscal discipline.

He said the purpose of his visit was to look at how IFC could continue to support Ghana in the future and how it could do more to help Ghana pursue its development cause and reach even stronger performance.