African Development Bank and African Development Fund approve Regional Integration Strategy with Projects worth US$2 Bn for EAC Region
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, 15th October 2018: The African Development Bank (AfDB) and African Development Fund (ADF) have approve the Regional Integration Strategy with Projects worth USD2 Billion for EAC Region. The African Development Bank is among the top EAC Development Partners. The Bank’s support in the Region is oriented toward “Accelerating East Africa’s Transformation through Regional Integration”.
Since July 2017, the EAC Secretariat has been working with the Bank on a proposal to support the EAC priority projects under the Bank’s Regional Integration Strategy Paper (RISP) for Eastern Africa (EA-RISP 2018-22). The efforts to engage with the Bank are in line with the outcome of the Joint EAC Heads of State Retreat concluded on 28th February 2018 in Kampala, Uganda, at which the Secretariat was called upon to collaborate with development partners to “Mobilize resources required for implementation of new and ongoing priority infrastructure projects”.
A total of 20 projects worth $2 billion to be implemented by the EAC and EAC Partner States are included under the EA-RISP approved by the Bank’s Board of Directors on 10th October 2018 for the next five years.
Accordingly to a press release issued by the Bank on 12th October, 2018 the RISP is the Bank’s strategic and programming instrument to guide its support to regional operations in 13 countries, comprising the six EAC Partner States and their congruous neighbours in the greater Eastern Africa region such as Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia and Sudan. EA-RISP is anchored on two mutually reinforcing pillars, namely ‘regional infrastructure for competitiveness and structural transformation’, and ‘strengthening the policy and institutional frameworks for market integration, growing investments and value chains development.
In line with this strategic thrust, the EAC priority projects included in the RISP cover regional transport connectivity, regional energy infrastructure, regional ICT connectivity, and management of transboundary water resources.
Under the second pillar, the Bank will support projects aimed at accelerating implementation of the EAC single market, trade development including tackling of non-tariff barriers (NTBs), and putting in place policy frameworks for industrialization and promotion of EAC as a single investment destination. On financial market integration, the Bank aims to scale up implementation of the EAC payment and settlement systems integration. A number of knowledge products have also been prioritized, including publication of the flagship Eastern Africa Industrial Competitiveness Report in collaboration with UNIDO.
The Bank has indicated that the indicative operational program updated at the Mid-Term Review in 2020. A range of instruments will be deployed to finance the selected projects, including the Bank concessional resources under the African development Fund (ADF) window, its non-concessional resources under the African Development Bank (ADB) window, trust funds and blending instruments, including through collaboration with other development partners such as the European Union, French Development Agency (AFD), and China’s Africa Growing Together Fund (AGTF).
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For more information, please contact:
Mr Owora Richard Othieno
Head, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Department
EAC Secretariat
Arusha, Tanzania
Tel: +255 784 835021
Email: OOthieno [at] eachq.org
About the East African Community Secretariat:
The East African Community (EAC) is a regional intergovernmental organisation of five Partner States, comprising Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, with its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.
The EAC Secretariat is ISO 9001:2008 Certified