On 29 November, the African Development Fund (ADF) Board of Directors approved in Abidjan loans totalling €156.66 million to Burkina Faso and Mali for the upgrading and surfacing of cross-border roads linking the two landlocked West African countries to Cote d’Ivoire.
A total of 242 kilometres of roads will be rehabilitated in the two countries thanks to financing from the Bank Group’s concessional window and the Transition Support Facility, a mechanism designed to provide additional concessional resources to countries facing situations of fragility and conflict.
The Islamic Development Bank and the European Union are also co-financing the project to the tune of €138 million and €25 million respectively, according to a note obtained by APA.
The document stresses that for Burkina Faso, the funds will enable the rehabilitation and reinforcement of the 155-kilometre Bobo Dioulasso-Banfora-Cote d’Ivoire border road and the construction of the 42-kilometre Banfora-Orodara bypass. It will also enable the rehabilitation and doubling of the 100-metre-long bridge over the Léraba River linking Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire. In addition, 18 kilometres of urban roads will be built in the secondary towns crossed by the road, as well as 50 kilometres of rural roads to boost the local economy and protect people from the effects of climate change.
In Mali, the Bank Group’s support of €73.73 million will focus on the upgrading and asphalting of the Bougouni-Garalo section of the Bougouni-Garalo-Manankoro-Côte d’Ivoire border road. This section is 45 km long.
The programme will run from 2024 to 2030
As landlocked countries, Burkina Faso and Mali are dependent for their international trade on land corridors linking them to the seaports of neighbouring coastal countries. The Abidjan-Bobo Dioulasso-Ouagadougou and Bamako-Man-San Pédro corridors will give the two countries access to the ports of Abidjan and San Pédro in Côte d’Ivoire for their international trade.
The project will improve the national and regional transport logistics chain in order to boost intra-regional trade. More specifically, it will improve the level of service of the Bobo Dioulasso-Banfora-Côte d’Ivoire border community roads, including the Banfora-Orodara slip road, and the Bougouni-Manankoro-Cote d’Ivoire border road, maintain the Léraba river crossing in all climatic conditions, improve the performance of the corridors by reducing non-tariff barriers and administrative formalities, as well as border crossing times, and improve access to basic socio-community services.
The programme has been designed using an integrated, multi-dimensional approach based on the nexus of regional integration – value chains – peace to maximise its impact on economic competitiveness. In addition to various related developments, it will provide communities with socio-economic infrastructure to strengthen the resilience of the beneficiary populations. It will also support the implementation of community decisions on transport facilitation, improve the supply of affordable transport, increase the volume of trade along the two corridors, intensify local and regional economic activity with job creation, transform the towns and cities crossed into economic hubs, and facilitate the exploitation of the rich economic potential of the project’s right of ways of zone.
The project’s direct area of influence, a large agro-pastoral zone where agriculture is combined with livestock activities, is home to 4.51 million people, or 6.28 percent of the total population of the three countries.
It is home to large industrial units as well as small semi-industrial agri-food processing units. In the face of global warming and the increasingly arid climate of the Sahelian regions, the area is currently attracting pastoralists and agro-pastoralists in search of more favourable climatic and ecological conditions.
Tourism also plays an important role in the local economy. Mining is also expanding in the area, with industrial mines (lithium, gold, etc.) and small-scale mines being established.
The African Development Bank Group is a key partner in financing the transport sector in Burkina Faso and Mali. The construction of regional road infrastructure to community standards, with the development of urban and rural roads, combined with training and the provision of equipment and tools for production and processing, will help promote the transport value chain and economic development by adding value to agricultural and livestock resources throughout the value chain,’ said Lamin Barrow, the Bank’s Managing Director for West Africa.
Strengthening the capacity of youth, women, training and trading centres and making them operational will help increase productivity, transform products and access markets, while contributing to poverty reduction,’ he added.
TE/lb/as/APA