AfDB provides $107.4m for transport project in The Gambia

Project will bolster West African regional integration

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group on December 16, 2011 approved funding of $107.4 million for the construction of the Trans-Gambia Bridge and Cross Border Improvement Project, the bank said in a statement December 19, 2011.

The financing package, which is being extended through the African Development Fund (ADF), the African Development Bank Group’s concessionary lending window, the statement said “comprises an outright grant of $102.3 million and ADF concessionary resources of $5.1 million.”

According to the Tunis-based African lender, the project will help bring to fruition plans which the governments of The Gambia and Senegal have had for many years, to create free traffic flow between the northern and southern parts of each country in order to promote free movement of persons, goods and services between them and other countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

The project will respond to these challenges by improving transit and accessibility of the communities in the project zone. It will also reduce transport costs and travel and cross border times, the statement adds.

The project will be executed over a period of five years, from 2012 to 2017, the AfDB says.

By Ekow Quandzie