ACCRA, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- The President of the World Bank Group (WBG) Dr. Kim Yong Jim arrived in Ghana on Tuesday on the first leg of a four-nation West African visit.
The visit will also takes him to the three countries most affected by the Ebola pandemic, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, a release from the World Bank Ghana office stated Monday.
The WBG president will be accompanied on the trip by Jin-Yong Cai, Executive Vice-President of the International Finance Corporation (IFC); Makhtar Diop, World Bank Vice President for Africa; and Tim Evans, Senior Director, Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice.
According to the statement, Dr. Kim will hold discussions with President John Dramani Mahama and other state officials, and convey the World Bank Group's appreciation to Ghana for her leadership role in coordinating the regional Ebola response.
It stated further that the discussions with President Mahama would "focus on Ghana's economic challenges and the important role of key stakeholders, including government, development partners, private sector and civil society in addressing them".
According to the statement, Dr. Kim will also participate in a roundtable discussion with a group of private business leaders active in the West African sub-region to discuss the overall impact of Ebola on private businesses, particularly small and medium enterprises.
It is estimated that the total cost of Ebola to Sub-Saharan Africa's economy is between 3 billion dollars and 4 billion dollars.
Dr. Kim is also expected to meet with officials of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) headquartered in Accra, Ghana, to discuss in-depth plans for accelerating and decentralizing the response to get to zero cases.
The WBG president visited Ghana late October where he announced an additional 100 million dollars support for the fight against the Ebola crisis in the West African sub-region.
That announcement brought to 500 million dollars the World Bank' s support for the countries having announced a 400 million- dollar package earlier.
