Burundi - Financial & Private Sector Development

closed

The objective of the Financial and Private Sector Development Project for Burundi is to strengthen the recipient's financial system and improve its business enabling environment. There are three components to the project. The first component of the project is modernizing the financial sector. The project will finance measures aiming, inter alia, at improving governance and transparency of the financial sector by: (a) modernizing financial sector infrastructure (payments systems), and (b) improving financial sector regulations. The second component of the project is improving corporate governance and performance of public enterprises. The project will finance technical assistance to improve performance and corporate governance of a select number of priority public enterprises (PE) selected by government, including: (a) Office National des Telecommunications (ONATEL), (b) sale of 50 percent of the government's share in the coffee washing stations, (c) select operations in the sugar sector, and (d) reinforcing the capacity of Service Charge des Entreprises Publiques (SCEP) in monitoring public enterprises (PES) and preparing privatization of other selected PES. The third component of the project is streamlining the regulatory environment for business and promoting private public dialogue. The third component supports the regulatory environment in Burundi including: (a) preparation of accompanying regulations for commercial legislation, (b) preparation of a number of new texts for the financial sector, (c) the review and modernization of the chart of accounts (CoA) for commercial banks, for insurance companies and for micro-finance enterprises, (d) support to the nation's accounting profession, and (e) institutional development for those Institutions responsible for developing and promoting the private sector agenda.