The government of Ghana has signed four financing agreements with the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank, estimated at $157 million. The projects to be financed under the agreements are the First Natural Resources and Environmental Governance Development Policy Operation, $20 million; the Agricultural Development Policy Operation and emergency support to assist the government to mitigate efforts to reduce food prices, $35 million; the West Africa Transport and Transit Facilitation Project, $80 million, and the Community-Based Rural Development Project, $22 million. The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, signed for Ghana, while the World Bank Country Director, Mr Ishac Diwan, initialled for the bank. Speaking at the ceremony, Mr Baah-Wiredu said the First Natural Resources and Environmental Governance Programme sought to support the government’s reform efforts in three key natural resources and environmental sectors. These are forestry and wildlife, mining and environmental protection for sustainable growth and development, adding that objectives included improving mining sector revenue collection. The Agricultural Development Policy Operation, he said, aimed at supporting the government’s efforts at encouraging agriculture-led growth to achieve the objectives of the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy II through the implementation of the Food and Agriculture Sector Development Policy. Mr Baah-Wiredu noted that the expected areas of focus for the agricultural policy operation were to maintain the positive trend of export diversification and encourage non-state actors such as farmer organisations. On the West Africa Transport and Transit Facilitation Project, he said it was aimed at improving access by Burkina Faso and Mali to Ghana's ports by facilitating the efficient movement of traffic along the Tema-Ouagadougou-Bamako corridor. He explained that the objective of the Community-Based Development Project was to strengthen the capacity of rural communities to enhance their quality of life by improving their productive assets, rural infrastructure and acce5S to key support services from private and public sources. Mr Diwan, for his part, said the projects had been programmed for a long time, and expressed the hope that they would be implemented soon. He said the community-based project would, among other things, also see to the rehabilitation of roads destroyed during the floods in the northern regions. Source: Daily Graphic