Friday, March 29, 2024

African Development Bank approves US$243 million loan for Chinsali-Nakonde Road

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THE African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved US$243 million loan for the rehabilitation of the Chinsali-Nakonde Road.

AfDB officer in charge for Zambia Philip Boahen said his bank will provide US$193 million and a US$50 million loan from the Africa Growing Together Fund (AGTF).

This will support the rehabilitation of the Chinsali –Nakonde Road.

“The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group has approved a US$193 million loan and a US$ 50-million loan from AGTF, to support the rehabilitation of the Chinsali-Nakonde road, a section of the North-South Corridor in Zambia, connecting Tanzania,” Mr Boahen said.

The project aims to improve road transport infrastructure and services as well as reduce transport costs between northern Zambia and southern Tanzania.

Mr Boahen said this in Lusaka yesterday.

He said it was also expected to provide efficient, cost-effective and fully integrated transport infrastructure and operations that addresses the needs of users and promotes socio-economic development.

“This will comprise the reconstruction of the 210 kilometre road between Chinsali and Nakonde. The bank will also provide institutional support and capacity building and resettlement and compensation,” he explained.

Mr Boahen said the civil works component also covers social infrastructure that includes the rehabilitation of 50 kilometers of feeder roads, construction of truck stops/ rest station at three locations to improve road safety and stimulate local trading opportunities.

The project also includes sensitization on HIV/AIDS and environmental protection, as well as road safety; training opportunities for youth and women in road maintenance; and technical assistance to support specific aspects in the road sub-sector in Zambia, such as the operationalisation of the road maintenance strategy.

The Chinsali-Nakonde road is a strategic national and regional road link that forms a section of both the North-South Corridor, which traverses eight countries and the Trans-Africa Highway (Cape to Cairo).

The road section connects northern Zambia to Tanzania, and provides connectivity and access to the sea for landlocked Zambia. It links the port of Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania to the Copper-belt in Southern Democratic Republic of Congo and Northern Zambia.

It also connects the Copperbelt to the southern ports of South Africa.

The present degraded condition of the road, which was constructed in the 1970s, is an impediment to national and regional mobility.

Mr Boahen said the rehabilitation of the road was aligned with the Government’s 2014-2016 mid-term expenditure framework and the 2013-2016 revised Sixth National Development Plan (SNDP), as well as the 2030 national long term vision.

He said it was also consistent with the first pillar of the economic diversification through infrastructure development of the revised country strategy paper as well as the objectives of the bank’s 2013-2022 Strategy.

With a total cost estimated at US$255.76 million, the AfDB and AGTF loans represent 75.5 per cent and 19.5 per cent of the costs, respectively.

Mr Boahen said the Zambian Government was expected to provide the remaining five per cent which translate into US$12.76 million in the form of counterpart funding.

13 COMMENTS

  1. Here is my message to AfDB: please make sure Chikwanda and his Bemba cronies do not steal this honeypot, like they are doing with the Eurobonds, if you want Zambia to repay you. Otherwise, AfDB and Eurobond creditors will get nothing back from Zambia in the 2020s when these loans are due.

  2. “It also connects the Copperbelt to the southern ports of South Africa.”

    Which Chinsali-Nakonde road connects Copperbelt to South Africa??????

  3. How much construction costdoes this translate to in USD/Km? Appro 1.16 million usd per km! This is unreal. Why is construction so expensive in Zambia? Are we really serious about financial discipline and how we use forex from kaloba?

    • This is the legacy of PF corruption. That is how they steal money by over charging the country for the roads. When they were getting cuts from contracts, the high prices/km was set. No responsible government can be crucifying the its own country like PF are doing.

  4. If TAZARA was really recapitalised such huge amount of money could not have be borrowed to maintain roads as the case may be. So much bulk cargo could be moving on the rail and spare our roads. Also the Government need to appoint a serious Person to run the affairs of Company as the case may be.

    • @BULLDOGS as long as the Passenger and Road Haulage business is owned by the Political elite and party funders you can forget about ever having modern railway;

      There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order, this lukewarmness arising partly from fear of their adversaries … and partly from the incredulity of mankind, who do not truly believe in anything new until they have had actual experience of it.

      — Niccolo Machiavelli

    • @ Jay Jay: I salute you, but pliz break the message down into simple everyday laguage that can be absorbed by all! A lot of folks on the this who visit this site lack comprehesion skills let alone have (forget about) an ability to decihper philosopical quotes! Cheers!

  5. This road money will be spent as follows, 50% will go to the road, 30% to bye elections,20% commission to the one who awarded the deal, 10% will not even be traced. The auditor General will highlight this, and absolutely nothing will happen

  6. I haven’t seen toll gates in the project, we need toll gates in nakonde, isoka and Chinsali for the districts and RDA to raise revenue for maintenance of the same road. Zambia is a land linked country and it is crisscross by foreign trucks freely at a huge cost to Government. It’s high time we become just a little bit self fish as a country.

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