ADB approves project loans and grants

The African Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday announced its approval of some US $79 million in loans and grants to four West African countries: Gambia, Guinea, Mali and Nigeria. The bank approved a loan of $45.9 million to finance a health systems development project in the Nigerian states of Bauchi, Yobe, Katsina, Kaduna, Benue, Niger, Imo, Abia, Oyo, Lagos, Akwa Ibom and Edo. The project aims to strengthen capacities for health systems management at Nigerian federal and state levels, the bank said in a press statement. It is also intended to improve the delivery of primary health care, with an emphasis on immunisation services, safe motherhood interventions and communicable diseases. About $18 million was approved for the second phase of a livestock project in northeast Mali, which aims to contribute to the sustainable development of the livestock sector while improving the incomes and living conditions of rural communities. Some 85 groups and associations are to be trained on new herd production and management methods, according to the ADB press release on Wednesday. The project will also involve the artificial insemination of 50 herds, distribution of cattle and sheep sires, and the development of 1,000 hectares of dry season marshy pastures. The bank hopes to help rehabilitate 30 pastoral boreholes, create 100 watering places, recover 6,500 ha of riverbank land and implement a functional literacy and post-literacy programme. That effort is to be specifically geared towards HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases and malaria control for some 32,500 learners. In The Gambia, ADB approved $13.2 million to finance the country's Education III Project, which involves the rehabilitation and construction of classrooms for primary and secondary schools, as well as the construction of a teacher resource centre in the Central River Division. It will support in-service teacher training, establish a fund for school maintenance and provide primary pupils with health inputs, as well as financing studies to improve technical education, vocational training and non-formal education. The ADB also approved a grant of about $1.8 million for studies on an electrification master plan and a rural electrification project in Guinea.