The International Development Association will help fund Rwanda’s Public Sector Governance Programme, which is seeking to enhance the African country’s PFM and statistics system and thereby help the government to take better-informed spending decisions.

The bank said the programme would also improve the efficiency and effectiveness of public resources by focusing on accounting, auditing, budgeting and reporting in both national and sub-national governmental intuitions.

‘Improving transparency and accountability is especially important at the sub-national level, because local government in Rwanda have important service delivery responsibilities,’ said Yoichiro Ishihara, World Bank task team leader for the public sector.

‘The programme will increase the availability of good development statistics that can better target government expenditures and continuously measure their social and economic impact which will ultimately improve the effective use of public resources.’

Another $100m was also announced for the Transformation of Agriculture Sector Programme. This scheme focuses on raising famers’ income through diversification of crops, improved irrigation and increased private sector investment.