The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group has approved a $5.94 million grant to the Comoros to support financial governance reforms and enhance electricity supply in the country.
The funding, approved on 19 July 2024, will enhance the Energy Sector Reform and Financial Governance Support Programme. It will be financed from the Transition Support Facility, an African Development Bank Group funding mechanism designed for countries in transition. In addition to the grant, the Programme has secured contributions from strategic partners, including the World Bank Group, the International Monetary Fund, the Agence française de développement and the European Union.
Nnenna Nwabufo, the Bank Group's Director General for East Africa, highlighted the initiative's objective. "The programme is a budget support operation aiming to contribute to improving the economic and financial performance of the Comoros through enhanced economic and financial governance and a better public electricity supply," she stated. The programme assumes that improved financial governance and enhanced energy sector performance will boost the financial resilience and economic stability of the Comoros, Nwabufo noted.
The programme entails two main components and provides for several activities: a tax verification programme; creating and operating a department for medium-sized and large businesses with monitoring capabilities; adopting a law on public corporation management; and establishing an energy regulation authority.
The initiative will have a sustainable impact on distribution by providing the Comoros with budgetary resources to improve public service provision and offer a robust regulatory framework to promote financial governance.
The private sector in Comoros is expected to benefit from increased competition due to the implementation of these reforms. Public corporations will also gain advantages through the establishment of the national energy regulation authority and the creation of a department to manage state shareholdings and monitor the financial performance of public entities.
