The World Bank has disclosed a grant amounting to CFAF 272 billion to fund various development projects in Senegal.
The four agreements were signed on Tuesday, April 12, between Nathan Belete, WB Director of Operations in Senegal, and Abdoulaye Daouda Diallo, Senegalese Minister of Finance and Budget.
The contracts cover several sectors and are mainly aimed at electricity, education, agriculture and opening up the south of the country where military operations against a separatist rebellion have resumed in recent days.
The project to Improve the Performance of the Education System (PAPSE), the Project to Improve Access to Electricity in Senegal (PADAES), the Casamance Economic Development Project (PDEC) and the Program to Improve Connectivity in the Agricultural Production Zones of Northern and Central Senegal (PCZA) will benefit from World Bank support.
According to the minister, the first agreement will absorb more than 30 percent of the funding, or 82.5 billion, and aims to increase access to electricity services for households, businesses and essential public facilities in Senegal.
The second agreement, funded at CFAF 110 billion, or nearly 40 percent, will improve road connectivity in key agricultural areas in the center and north of the country.
The center of the country is known for its peanut cultivation, while in the north, straddled by the river, people have the opportunity to grow crops outside of the winter season.
The third point of the contract with the Bretton Woods institution is related to a project to improve the education system costing nearly CFAF 55 billion.
With funding of nearly 25 billion, another intervention is aimed at strengthening social cohesion and community resilience in the southern region of Casamance.
ODL/cgd/fss/as/APA