Cabo Verde has called on the World Bank to move beyond per capita income as the sole criterion for determining access to financing, warning that the archipelago’s recent reclassification as an upper-middle-income country could curtail its access to grants and concessional loans.

The position was set out by Secretary of State for Finance Maria José Lopes on Tuesday, 13 October, during the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, taking place in Bangkok, Thailand, according to the Lusa news agency.

“Last year, the World Bank upgraded Cabo Verde from lower-middle-income to upper-middle-income status, and there will certainly be changes to the criteria,” the official said.

Maria José Lopes explained that several international partners had already flagged possible restrictions on access to financial support instruments as a result of the new classification.

“Many bilateral partners were already telling us that, because we are an upper-middle-income country, we could lose access to certain grants,” she disclosed.

Faced with this prospect, the Cape Verdean government is pressing international financial institutions to take into account not only income levels but also the structural vulnerabilities of small island states.

“We are asking that eligibility criteria not be based solely on income, but that the conditions of the country also be taken into account,” she stressed.

According to the official, Cabo Verde remains particularly exposed to external shocks and faces “multidimensional vulnerabilities” that should inform the terms of international financing.

The central concern relates to potential changes in access to concessional loans — which carry more favourable terms than market-rate borrowing — and to other development support mechanisms.

“We are asking that eligibility criteria not be based solely on income, but that the conditions of the country also be taken into account.” — Maria José Lopes

In parallel, the Cape Verdean government is negotiating a new cooperation framework with the World Bank, aligned with the priorities of the government led by the African Party for the Independence of Cabo Verde (PAICV), which won the legislative elections in May.

Maria José Lopes said that meetings held over the past week had allowed both sides to assess the progress of ongoing projects and identify priority areas for future interventions.

“Institutional relations will continue,” she said.

The Secretary of State noted that the World Bank is one of Cabo Verde’s principal financial partners, with more than US$300 million invested in projects across the archipelago.

“The objective is to review the projects that are already financed and to present the new priorities, so that we can define the terms under which new programmes will be established,” she explained.

Despite the possibility of revised financing conditions and a redefinition of government priorities, Maria José Lopes does not anticipate any significant change in the institutional relationship between Cabo Verde and the World Bank.