The World Bank's Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Liberia Country Director, Robert Taliercio, has called on the government to depend more on concessional foreign borrowing from sources such as the International Development Association (IDA) rather than depend significantly on high-cost domestic borrowing to finance capital projects.
Speaking at the launch of the World Bank's 2025 Policy Notes: Turning Ghana Around in a Generation in Accra on Wednesday, September 24, 2025, Mr. Taliercio said that concessional IDA loans carry much more favorable terms than borrowing at domestic Treasury-bill levels.
He added that domestic short-term lending (T-bills) had an interest rate of 27.4 percent on average in 2023-2024, and IDA regular and blend lending had a range of interest and service charges from 0.75 percent to 2.0 percent, with longer grace periods.
"Despite recent setbacks in borrowing costs domestically to 11.9 percent in September 2025, new IDA blend terms offer markedly lower at 1.5 percent, guaranteed for longer tenures. Therefore, it's a resounding choice in terms of using all IDA available before resorting to additional domestic financing," Mr. Taliercio underscored.
The 2025 Policy Notes delineate Ghana's structural issues and suggest four strategic pillars for long-term growth and inclusive transformation.
The first pillar requires the restoration of macro-financial stability through more robust domestic revenue mobilisation, prudent public finances, and sector reform in energy and cocoa.
Ghana's 2021 tax mobilisation of 13 percent of GDP is significantly lower than both its estimated tax potential of 21 percent of GDP and the Sub-Saharan African average.
Through the first half of 2025, revenue had reached 7.1 percent of GDP against a 7.3 percent target.