African bank approves US $15 million loan

The African Development Fund has approved a loan of FCFA 11.15-billion (US $15 million) for a community feeder roads project in Senegal, the African Development Bank (ADB) reported on Wednesday. The project consists of upgrading nearly 1,800 km of rural roads in 90 communities. Selection of roads for upgrading was based on demand and what the users said they needed to improve access to community infrastructure such as schools, markets, health services, water, and to open up productive rural areas. It will strengthen ongoing local development projects, contribute to poverty reduction, and improve living standards for about 300,000 rural dwellers. The upgrading of roads, as outlined in the National Rural Infrastructure Programme, will help increase labour productivity and make it easier to transport goods to markets. Some 150,000 women stand to benefit through access to basic infrastructure. "This project is in keeping with the government's decentralised rural development policy and is complimentary to the National Rural Infrastructure Programme drawn up in 1998 to revamp [the] rural economy," the bank reported. Co-financed by the ADB, the OPEC Fund and the beneficiaries, the whole project is expected to cost approximately FCFA 18.32 billion (US $24.72 million), the bank reported. The African Development Fund is the small loans branch of the ADB while the OPEC Fund is a money lending arm of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries.