The African Development Bank Group and the Government of the Republic of Congo have completed a joint review of the Bank's portfolio in the country, assessing progress on ongoing projects and agreeing on priorities to improve performance over the 2025-2027 period.

The workshop, held in Brazzaville on 17 November, brought together technical ministries, project implementation units, development partners, and civil society representatives. It assessed a Bank mission conducted from 11 to 17 November that evaluated the quality and performance of Bank-financed operations, reviewed results from the previous Portfolio Improvement Plan (PAPP 2022-2024), examined alignment with national priorities, and proposed measures to address identified challenges.

The review covered several projects, including the Integrated Agricultural Value Chains Development Project (PRODIVAC), the Ketta-Djoum Road Development Project, the Development Studies for Hydroelectric Sites and Associated Lines and the Technical Assistance Request to Improve Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation in Rural Congo. These initiatives aim to boost economic diversification, strengthen access to essential services and improve regional connectivity.

"The Bank's portfolio includes many structural projects in different sectors. [...] Nevertheless, significant challenges remain, particularly delays in implementation," said Ludovic Ngatsé, Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Integration and the Bank's Governor for Congo, at the opening of the workshop. "Our goal is to improve the overall performance of the portfolio and maintain close cooperation with a key technical partner in financing our development," he added.

The review painted a bleak picture of the portfolio's performance: a project completion rate of 57 percent, delays of up to 23 months in disbursements after the signing of agreements, and an average disbursement rate of only nine percent.

Speaking at the opening of the meeting on behalf of the African Development Bank's Director General for Central Africa, Léandre Bassolé, Country Economist Olivier Beguy said: "the challenges relate in particular to the quality of technical studies, the availability of environmental and social safeguard documents, slowness in setting up project management units, delays in procurement and insufficient control of fiduciary procedures."

New Portfolio Improvement Plan adopted

In response, the workshop adopted a new Portfolio Improvement Plan for 2025-2027. It aims to strengthen financial management, operational planning, procurement, monitoring and evaluation, and the integration of environmental and social standards. The measures planned include the organisation of quarterly meetings between the implementing units, technical ministries and the Bank, the development of annual work plans, migration to the SYCEBNL accounting framework, improved contract monitoring and optimisation of technical reports.

Minister Ngatsé reiterated the Congolese government's determination to strengthen the portfolio's effectiveness through three priorities: improving project governance using modern tools, strengthening the technical capacities of management units and accelerating project implementation rates through rigorous monitoring methods.

"A multisectoral project monitoring platform will need to be set up under the responsibility of the Ministry of Planning to ensure a cross-cutting view of project management. All projects will need to be digitised around this platform to ensure greater transparency in the monitoring of actions, as well as in financial terms," he said.

Since 1972, the African Development Bank has financed 46 projects in the Republic of Congo for a total amount of $1.27 billion. Major infrastructure projects such as the Ndendé-Dolisie road, the Ketta-Djoum road and the Central Africa Backbone (CAB) fibre optic project have improved internal connectivity and regional integration.

The Bank's current portfolio includes nine active projects with a total commitment of $99.51 million, spread across the agriculture (93 percent), energy (four percent), transport (two percent) and finance (one percent) sectors.