Ansah’s Capacity

Reports that the head of the Harare-based, World Bank-funded African Capacity Building Foundation, Jonathan Frimpong-Ansah quit just after bank president, Lewis Preston’s visit to the capital has left many wondering what the foundation is up to.

The foundation was launched in October 1990 to lift the quality of managers in both the public and private sectors and is also funded by the United Nations Development Programme and the African Development Bank.

Officially, Frimpong-Ansah did not renew his contract because of ill-health, but the Ghanaian former central bank governor and adviser to the Standard Chartered bank in London is reported to have fallen off with the World Bank because he resented the way the foundation was structured to make it look like a World Bank outfit.

Frimpong-Ansah has just had his book, The Vampire State in Africa -the political economy of the decline in Ghana, published. In it he clearly says the views of multilateral institutions and the donor community are inferior to informed domestic alternatives.

He should know better having worked as a central bank governor for Ghana, once regarded as a role model of how the structural adjustment works, as well as for the foundation, which is sponsored by the World Bank, one of the main agitators of SAP’s.

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