World Bank provides $45B to stimulate economy in poor countries

The World Bank will provide $45 billion over the next three years to support road building and other infrastructure projects in poor nations.

Shant Devarajan, chief economist of the Africa region at the bank, said the institution will increase infrastructure investments to the developing world to over $45 billion over the next three years, some of it will go to Africa.

We gave $100 million to the Democratic Republic of the Congo which will be used to finance two things: the maintenance of infrastructure and paying teachers' salaries.

The other thing that can stimulate the economy is to provide financing to small and medium enterprises. he continued.

Aid groups are asking that any support to the developing world by the World Bank and IMF should be issued as grants, rather than loans. In recent years, the international community has abolished the loan payments for many countries. Activists fear by accepting loans, developing countries will suffer another debt crisis.

Devarajan says the World Bank also plans another program Cash-for-work to stimulate employment and demand in African nations.

In Ethiopia, we have a program that pays poor people in rural areas to work on building infrastructure that covers two million people and has been assessed to be quite efficient, it is an exciting program. he said.