The Board of Directors of the African Development Fund (ADF) today approved a USD 23.4 million (Unit of Account 15 million) loan to finance The Alternative Learning and Skills Development Project Phase II (ALSDP II), in Tanzania.

The project will directly target some 117,000 unemployed youth in the Unguja and Pemba islands in Zanzibar and will build on the success of ALSDP I pilot phase completed in 2010. It aims at reducing unemployment among the youth and women by enhancing their skills through improved access to technical and business skills required by the labour market. It is consistent with the Bank's commitment to pro-poor human resource development programmes and inclusive growth in Regional Member Countries including Tanzania.

The ADF loan will cover 71.4 % of USD 32.8 million (UA 21.02 million) total project cost. The project's other financiers are Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (21.3%) and Tanzania's government (7.3%). The project, to be implemented in five years, would be completed by April 2014.

Tanzania has a land area of 945000 sq. km, a population of 43.7 million growing at the rate of 2.9%, and USD 440 GNP. Since 1971, the Bank has approved 103 operations in Tanzania, with a total commitment amounting to UA 1.55 billion or USD 2.5 billion, net of cancellations. At end 2010, the bulk of Bank Group commitments were financed by ADF (95.4%), followed by AfDB (3.4%), Nigeria Trust fund (0.8%) and Private Sector window (0.4%).

Bank Group impact has been particularly felt in infrastructure, agriculture, and, more recently, in human resource development and budget support. Recent successfully completed operations include the Agriculture Sector Development Program I, Alternative Learning Skills Development I, and Poverty Reduction Support project II.