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African Development Bank (Abidjan)
The New Partnership
for Africa's Development Infrastructure Project Preparation Facility
(NEPAD-IPPF) held its 30th Oversight Committee meeting for the Special
Fund at the headquarters of the East
African Community, in Arusha,
Tanzania.
The meeting which
took place on the 13th and 14th of February 2020, convened over 30
participants, including donors providing financial support to the
NEPAD-IPPF Special Fund, representatives of the African Development
Bank, African Union Commission, African Union Development Agency
(AUDA-NEPAD), Regional Economic Communities, Regional Power Pools,
Corridors Authorities and Transboundary River basin organizations.
Members agreed to
implement recommendations of NEPAD-IPPF's independent evaluation held in
2019, and also approved operational reforms and the 2020 work program.
EAC Deputy
Secretary General in charge of Planning and Infrastructure, Steven
Mlote, thanked the Bank for its generous support over the past 20 years
which he said had resulted in numerous achievements in various sectors
including transport, energy, one stop border posts, ICT and
Trans-Boundary Water Projects.
He said the
recently completed Arusha-Tengeru dual carriageway and the Arusha
by-pass had substantially improved traffic flow in the Arusha region
while the counterpart section in Kenya - the Taveta-Mwatate road, has
opened up a new and shorter trade and transport route for Rwanda and
Burundi from the port of Mombasa.
"Along the Coast of
East Africa, the transport corridor from Malindi in Kenya to Bagamoyo
in Tanzania is due for upgrading with funds from the Bank. It is
gratifying to note that its preparation was funded by the NEPAD-IPPF.
This road will close the missing surface transport link between the EAC
and SADC regions which traverses Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique," he
added.
The successes of
initial Bank-funded multinational projects between Kenya and Tanzania
provided the impetus to widen the geographical spread to other EAC
partner states with current projects underway to link Tanzania to the
three landlocked states of Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda.
"To date,
NEPAD-IPPF has extended support to the EAC to the tune of almost $15
million for road and rail soft infrastructure projects over a period of
13 years," said Mlote.
Also represented at
the meeting were development partners KfW, and the Spanish Ministry of
Economy and Business which both acknowledged the pivotal role NEPAD-IPPF
continues to play in the infrastructure space on the continent. They
equally recognized the need for more resources to enable the fund to
achieve more.
Laura González
Villarejo representing the Ministry of Economy, Spain said in her
statement that Africa is a priority region for Spain. She added that the
Spanish Council of Ministers' long term strategic plan for Africa
demonstrated the interest of Spain in Africa.
Michael Andres from
KfW, the Oversight Committee Chairman, reiterated the full support of
Germany for the Fund. He thanked the NEPAD-IPPF team led by Mike
Salawou, Bank Division Manager Infrastructure & Partnerships, for
the good performance of the fund during 2019, for a well-organized
meeting and the East African Community Secretariat for hosting the
event. He emphasized the need for joint effort from all concerned
parties including the RECs to seek funding for the facility.
AUC representative Mr. Yagouba Traore called upon AUC Member states to support the Fund.
Director of
Infrastructure at the African Development Bank, Mr. Amadou Oumarou
reaffirmed the institution's commitment to mobilize more resources for
NEPAD-IPPF and highlighted a Euro 3 million contribution received by the
facility from the Spanish government in 2019. Infrastructure
development would be more critical as the continent sought to make the
African Continental Free Trade Area functional, he said.
"The facility has
maintained a sustained drive towards building partnerships and can
report on positive co-financing results. Notwithstanding, our efforts to
secure more resources will continue through 2020, both from African
governments and stakeholders as well as in collaboration with private
sector companies and philanthropists," Oumarou said.
Going forward,
implementing cost recovery instruments to support Public Private
Partnership projects to attract more private sector financing downstream
would be an important focus for the NEPAD-IPPF, he added.
The meeting ended
with a visit to the Namanga "One Stop Border Post" between
Tanzania-Kenya. This project funded by NEPAD-IPPF, has helped increase
trade and tourism and has also stimulated the regional economy within
the East African Community.
Contact:
African Development Bank: Amba Mpoke-Bigg, Communication and External Relations Department, email: a.mpokebigg@afdb.org
East African
Community: Simon Peter Owaka, Senior Public Relations Officer, Corporate
Communications and Public Affairs; Tel: +255 768 552087; email: sowaka@eachq.o
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