Angola: AfDB Group Supports Financial Governance

14 November 2007
African Development Bank (Abidjan)
press release

Tunis — The African Development Bank (AfDB) will support efforts by Angola's government to improve public finance management to sustain economic growth and reduce poverty, following the approval of a loan of 5.9 million Units of Account (UA*), about US$ 9.27 million to fund the Financial Management Support Project (PAGEF) in the country.

The loan was approved by the Board of Directors of the African Development Fund (ADF), the concessional window of the Bank Group on Wednesday in Tunis. The objective of the project is to strengthen institutional capacities in the areas of state property management, internal and external audit systems. The ultimate goal is to ensure transparent and efficient public finance management in order to promote a more equitable economic growth.

The project falls within the strategic context of the Government's General Program and its interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP-I), which aims in particular, "the creation of a favorable macroeconomic framework for growth and poverty reduction" and "institutional capacity building and improvement of governance". By promoting transparency ant strengthening the integrity of the budget system, through greater accuracy of budgets and General State Accounts (GSA) as well as effective external audit by the Court of Auditors, the PAGEF will contribute to the enhancement of financial governance, necessary for macroeconomic stability and improvement in the business environment for private sector activities.

The PAGEF will, in conjunction with the interventions of other development partners in the area of economic and financial management, contribute to better targeting of public resource to priority social sectors and investments necessary for private sector development and a more equitable economic growth. The project is in line with the Bank's intervention strategy in Angola, as defined in the Results-based Country Strategy Paper (RBCSP 2005-2007), especially the thrust on creating an enabling environment for private sector development.

The cost of the project is estimated at UA 6.57 million. The ADF loan will cover 89.7% of the costs. The government will provide the remaining UA 0.68 million or 10.3% of the total cost of the project.

The Bank Group's operations in Angola started in 1983. To date, the Group has committed a total of UA 298.07 million, about US$ 469.3 million in 32 operations in the country.

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