ECONOMY-GUINEA: World Bank Gives Thumbs Up For Growth

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

CONAKRY, Jan 29 1998 (IPS) - A high-powered World Bank assessment team has praised Guinea for keeping its economic reform programme on course, but warned that the government must keep up the momentum and tackle rising unemployment.

Led by the Bank’s Vice-President for Africa, Jean Louis Sarbib, and the divisional chief for West Africa, Momodu Dia, the team said that the Guinean economy is “on the path of positive growth”.

“The Guinean government stands to benefit from a total of 300 million U.S. Dollars over a three-year period to enhance its World Bank/IMF Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), which is clearly on course,” Sarbib told journalists.

The Bretton Woods team said they are now left with the clearest indication that Guinea’s economy stands to grow, if the government of President Lansana Conte keeps up the momentum.

Sarbib, however, sounded a note of caution over the high rate of unemployment in the country. Tens of thousands of school leavers and university graduates continue to roam the streets of Conakry, and other towns, in search of jobs.

In the early 1990s, Guinea’s active labour force was about three million. The total population is estimated at 5.6 million. The majority of the labour force is employed in the rural sector.

Under the economic reform programme, the government plans to reduce employment in the public sector by 50 percent, and by early 1995, the number of public sector employees had fallen to 48,000 from 90,000 in 1986.

But the cut back in job opportunities in the public sector, which were previously guaranteed to all university graduates, has been a major contributing factor to rising urban unemployment.

“I graduated from the University of Conakry two years ago and still can’t find a job in the engineering sector,” said Bailor Jallow, who studied civil engineering.

“Most times, you have to have strong connections with people in high places before you’re given a job,” Jallow adds.

Sarbib indicated that the Guinean government, in line with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Programme, would soon put in place measures to curb unemployment. Areas that would be given priority include health, education, agriculture and road maintenance.

One reason for the upturn in the Guinean economy has been the wars in neighbouring Sierra Leone and Liberia. Potential investors in those countries diverted their operations to Guinea, thus boosting its economic growth.

According to figures released by the Finance Department, the economy grew by two and half percent in 1997, while inflation is down by five percent, as against four percent in 1996.

But the government has to fight the twin evils of corruption and high public spending.

In a recent broadcast to the nation President Conte promised to fight corruption, a cancer threatening the fabric of economic stability. He urged Guineans to “help build the economy by tackling corruption in all sectors”.

Economic analyst Ibrahim Sowe told IPS this week that little progress would be made on the economic front if the government continues to shy away from “dealing with economic saboteurs”.

“Corruption is almost institutionalised here. Most often, those who should be seen fighting corruption are the very ones perpetrating it,” Sowe said.

The private sector also has been at the forefront of Guinea’s economic performnance.

“I think the saving grace for Guinea is the dominant role of the private sector in the economy. Otherwise, the economy would continue to be lopsided,” Sowe said.

With private sector involvement, Conte’s government has succeeded in upgrading the roads of Conakry, and it has improved the electricity and water supply services and telecommunications.

These services, however, are mainly enjoyed by residents in the capital city, but it is believed that with more donor funds, the services can be extended to the metropolitan cities in other parts of the country.

Mamadou Conde, a businessman here, said the steady growth of the Guinean economy also has to do with political stability and the investors’ willingness to come in.

“We owe it to the climate of political stability in Guinea, otherwise like Sierra Leone and Liberia, which are torn apart by civil conflicts, we would have been in the same mess,” Conde said.