The World Bank Country Director for Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, Robert Taliercio, has advised government to lean more on concessional external financing from institutions such as the International Development Association (IDA) rather than depending heavily on expensive domestic borrowing to finance capital projects.
Speaking at the launch of the World Bank’s 2025 Policy Notes: Transforming Ghana in a Generation in Accra on Wednesday, September 24, 2025, Taliercio emphasised that concessional IDA loans provide far more favourable terms than domestic Treasury-bill borrowing.
He pointed out that short-term domestic financing (T-bills) carried an average interest rate of 27.4 percent between 2023 and 2024, while IDA regular and blend financing attracted interest and service fees between 0.75 percent and 2.0 percent, coupled with extended grace periods.
Even with recent declines in average domestic borrowing costs to 11.9 percent in September 2025, new IDA blend terms offer significantly lower rates at 1.5 percent, locked in for longer periods. So it’s an obvious choice in terms of using all IDA available before resorting to further domestic financing,” Taliercio stressed.
The 2025 Policy Notes outline Ghana’s structural challenges and recommend four strategic foundations for long-term growth and inclusive transformation.
The first foundation calls for restoring macro-financial stability through stronger domestic revenue mobilisation, sustainable public finances, and reforms in sectors such as energy and cocoa.
Ghana’s tax mobilisation, at 13 percent of GDP in 2021, remains well below both its estimated tax potential of 21 percent and the Sub-Saharan African average.
In the first half of 2025, revenue reached 7.1 percent of GDP against a 7.3 percent target.
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