Four member states of the Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) namely Ethiopia, Uganda, Djibouti and South Sudan have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) agreeing to implement Djibouti-Addis Ababa-Juba-Kampala infrastructure development project.
The agreement was reached on Thursday after IGAD’s steering committee met on the transport facilitation and road upgrading studies for the Djibouti-Addis Ababa-Juba-Kampala Corridor in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, a statement by the bloc has said.
As the meeting came to a close after comprehensive deliberations, the four IGAD countries signed the MoU and pledged to finalise the associated documents within the next few months and to intensify efforts to ensure the success of the project.
The two-day meeting was meant to wrap-up the development studies for the corridor and is an opportunity for concerned IGAD member states (Djibouti, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Uganda) and the IGAD Secretariat to chart the way forward to implement the recommendations of the studies on the feasibility of the corridor which was undertaken by the Nairobi-based Africon Consulting firm.
The study strongly recommended the implementation of the corridor after carefully analysing the two components of the project and found that both components are technically and economically feasible as they scored high economic indicators.
The soft part, the feasibility study, of the project has been successfully concluded. The participants are looking into the hard part of it, which is the implementation part, said IGAD in a statement.
The Kampala-Djibouti Corridor is one of four major corridors that are planned to increase regional connectivity in Africa.
MG/as/APA