Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, September 24, 2014 - The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) on Wednesday, September 24, 2014 approved a US $29.49-million grant to help finance the first phase of the Nyakararo-Mwaro-Gitega (RN18) Road Improvement and Asphalting Project in Burundi.
The project, which concerns 30-kilometre-long Nyakararo-Mwaro-Kibumbu road, aims to help open up access to the country and boost regional trade. This objective would be achieved by facilitating the movement of goods and persons along the road thereby increasing trade with the rest of the country and with the sub-region.
Under "Burundi Vision 2025", the Government designed and implemented an Infrastructure Action Plan (2010-2015) which gave rise to the Road Network Improvement Programme aimed at supporting the productive sectors of the economy. Therefore, the approved intervention is consistent with the national transport infrastructure improvement policy, especially for highly-populated regions with high economic potential.
The project is consistent with the second-generation Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Framework (GPRSF II), which focuses on transformation of the Burundian economy to generate sustained and job-creating growth; as well as the Bank's Country Strategy Paper for Burundi (2012-2016), whose two pillars are: (i) consolidation of governance; and (ii) the improvement of infrastructure, and the Bank's Ten-year Strategy for 2013-2022, are both in line with GPRSF II.
The main beneficiaries of the road project are farmers who experience difficulties in procuring inputs and in marketing their produce due to the poor state of the roads. It will also have a positive impact, especially on women and young people by improving their access to socio-economic infrastructure and creating new initiatives. Industrialists, loggers and transporters, whose operating and logistical costs will be significantly reduced thanks to the improvement and asphalting of the main road and rehabilitation of the rural roads, will also benefit from the project. In addition, the road will serve as a strategic economic link connecting Bujumbura to the central, northern and eastern regions of the country. It will also serve as an alternative road to the current central corridor linking Bujumbura to the Port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
The US $29.49-million African Development Fund (ADF) grant accounts for 95% of the project's total cost estimated at US $31.04 million.
Contact: Abayomi Babalola, Division Manager, Transport, a.babalola@afdb.org
