World Bank Country Director holds discussions with the Ministry
March 02, 2022
The World Bank Country Director for Seychelles, Ms. Idah Pswarayi-Riddihough, effected her first working visit here, between 28th February to 2nd March.
Ms. Pswarayi-Riddihough was appointed to the post, some 18 months ago.
She held a working meeting with high officials from the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Trade, on Monday 28th February.
The focus of the meeting was to get an update on the projects World Bank is financing, challenges being encountered and identify new collaborations between the institution and the government of Seychelles.
The two year covid 19 pandemic was also discussed, and the latest threat to the world economic recovery, the war in Ukraine.
“It is important at this stage, to discuss with our international partners, how they can assist us to mitigate the impact of this war and its disruption it is having on the world economic recovery and our own recovery from the pandemic”, said Minister Naadir Hassan.
The world is already seeing a hike in fuel/energy and commodities, mainly food, prices. Russia and Ukraine are main producers of wheat, sunflower oil, fuel and gas.
The added pressure on the price, production, availability and freight cost will further affect the global market.
“So the key thing we are thinking about right now, is how do we actually support Seychelles through the next level of building their own resilience to be able to actually weather whatever the issues that could come out of the interaction between Russia and Ukraine, from the perspective of the government, but also shoring up people, making sure that they do not fall into poverty”, Ms. Pswarayi-Riddihough, noted.
Among the projects World Bank is assisting Seychelles is welfare reform. The project is for a three-year period, which has as objective to modernize the system, thus ensuring targeted and coordinated measures for those really in need.
Minister Hassan explained that “the government is reassessing the welfare benefits and minimum wage, to assist those in the lower income bracket to cope with the adverse impact. The reforms will focus on targeted measures to assist this group to cope with the adverse impact of this new world development.”
Ms. Pswarayi-Riddihough, echoed the sentiment of Minister Hassan.
“So the question is how do we target really, those families that need support, what type of support they need and how do we actually make sure they receive the support they need. That is what we have been discussing so much with the government.”
To be able to mitigate the adverse impact of this war, which was unforeseen, Minister Hassan has noted that the government will be starting discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to reassess the parameters and targets set under the economic reform programme, as they were agreed upon, before the war.
“The current parameters did not take into consideration the war in Ukraine. This situation was not a factor which influenced our projections for 2022. It brings new variables into the equation, so Central Bank of Seychelles and the Ministry will have to start the conversation with IMF.”
“Given the situation there will be an increase in prices. It is important to prioritise our expenditure. I know it is not easy, we have sacrificed for nearly 2 years because of the pandemic. At the beginning of the year our economic development was really positive, its unfortunate at the start of this recovery, this war happens, all we can do, is mitigate its impact”, noted Minister Hassan.
Following the visit, Ms. Idah and Minister Hassan met with the media. Here is the news which was broadcast on SBC's Creole News t 8pm on 01.03.2022