LAGOS, July 13 (Xinhua) -- The Ghanaian government and the World Bank has signed four separate financing agreements, totaling157 million U.S dollars to support the country's development agenda, according to the Ghana News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday.

    The agreements, which was signed on Friday, include a 20-million U.S dollar fund for the development of natural resources and environmental governance policy, 25 million U.S dollars for agriculture development, 80 million U.S dollars for West African transport and transit facilitation project and 22 million U.S dollars for community-based rural development.

    An additional 10 million U.S dollars would be used for emergency purposes.

    Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Ghana's Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, said the money for environmental governance would ensure predictability and sustainability of the forest and wildlife sectors, improve mining sector revenue collection and management, and address social issues in forest and mining communities.

    According to him, It would support government's efforts to address emerging oil sector issues and adopt enhanced Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) principles.

    Baah-Wiredu said the funds would support government's efforts to encourage agriculture-led growth to achieve the objectives of the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS II) through the implementation of Food and Agriculture Sector Development Policy. The program would promote the positive trend of export diversification, encourage non-state actors and private sector to increase investments and address constraints to productivity.

    Ishac Diwan, World Bank country Director, said the agreements fitted into the government development strategy.