24.11.2013, Abu Dhabi, UAE – The Chairman of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group said that the Group is considering expansion of operations in Guinea through providing US$ 300 million in the next three years to support development in the country.

Dr. Ahmad Mohamed Ali made the announcement in his address to “Guinea’s Development Partners and Investors Conference” in Abu Dhabi, UAE, on 24 November. “The amount of IDB’s development financings and technical assistances provided to Guinea has exceeded US$ 400 million mainly targeting production increase, improvement of the transportation network, the energy transmission and distribution grid as well as expansion and rehabilitation of water and sanitation utilities in the capital Conakry, and
also in the cities of Boké and Télimélé”, stated the IDB Group Chairman.

The President of the Republic of Guinea, HE Alpha Conde and UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, HE Dr. Anwar Mohammed Gargash opened the conference which aimed to encourage the international community represented by the donors and the private sector to development finance in Guinea. The country has an ambitious development plan and a bold strategy for poverty reduction and tries its utmost to shed light on its vision, growth strategy and realization methods for the investors and
development companies.

Elsewhere in his speech, Dr. Ali referred to education as a top priority, the primary education in particular, includingthe bilingual education program, which aims to harmonize with the public education system in the country in an effort to reduce the departure of Quranic school graduates from the public education. The support will be expanded in a similar way to the health sector to combat Malaria.

The IDB Group Chairman further praised the government of Guinea for its early adoption of Islamic financial instruments as the Islamic Bank of Guinea was the first private bank to be licensed , in 1984. He recalled that the IDB extended the first Islamic Micro-finance program in West Africa to Guinea in 1981 which turned into a success story, while the Government and IDB also partnered to develop yet another success story and a reference in the region: the first modern Waqf Project whose income
is fully dedicated to education. “New initiatives to use Zakat for development purposes are also underway”, stated the IDB Group President.