The first stumbling block in the construction of the Abidjan Metro is evicting the populations from the sites chosen for the project, Bruno Le Maire, the French Economy and Finance Minister said on Thursday in the Ivorian economic capital.
The Abidjan metro is an urban transport rail network project whose first line, 37.4 km long, is expected to link the north and south of Abidjan.
Mr. Le Maire said he was in Abidjan to accelerate economic cooperation between France and Cote d’Ivoire and at the same time ensure the progress of all projects executed in the West African nation, together with his country, particularly the extension of the Felix Houphouet airport and the Abidjan Metro.
“The first difficulty (in building the Abidjan metro) is that we have to carry out expropriations and evictions. These are obviously difficult things. The second difficulty is that there are companies that are on the metro’s right-of-way. We must guarantee the activity of these companies, some of which employ 300, 400 people,” Mr. Le Maire explained.
“It is normal that this (project) takes time” he added.
“We have in 2021 a unique opportunity to accelerate this project,” he said.
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron’s envoy hailed what he called the Ivorian government’s total commitment to speeding up the metro project.
As for the Abidjan airport extension project, Mr. Le Maire said its cost is still under discussion.
According to him, the project to extend the Abidjan airport “is a sign of the development of Cote d’Ivoire.”
He went on to reiterate his country’s commitment to ensuring that African countries have the financial means necessary for economic recovery in the world by 2021.
“We will do everything to accelerate the economic development of the African continent and give it the financial means it needs to develop,” Mr. Le Maire vowed.
The Abidjan Metro, the inauguration of which was scheduled in 2019, will link the city of Anyama in the north of Abidjan to that of Port-Bout in the south of the Ivorian economic capital.
The funding of the project, amounting to € 1.4 billion (CFA 918.33 billion), was mobilized thanks to France’s support.
LB/ls/fss/as/APA