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To achieve its sustainable development goals, Africa must equip itself with efficient infrastructure. However, it still lacks sufficient resources to finance its projects in the sector, some of which even date from the time of independence. According to the African Development Bank, between 130 and 170 billion dollars of annual investment is needed to enable Africa to fill its infrastructure gap. This is why, in recent years, the institution has made the infrastructure sector the main destination for its investments. Transport, energy, industry… Here are four major emblematic projects carried out or supported by the Bank.

The Mombasa-Nairobi-Addis Ababa Corridor

As part of its five strategic priorities, “High 5s”, the African Development Bank has financed the construction of a road corridor linking the cities of Nairobi and Mombasa, Kenya, to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

This corridor is made up of a 504 kilometer stretch linking the Kenyan towns of Merille and Turbi, passing through Marsabit, and another 391 kilometer stretch crossing Ethiopia and connecting Ageremariam, Yabelo and Mega. A total of $670 million in financing was provided by the Bank, or 64% of the total project cost.

“A major step forward for economic integration in Africa”

According to AfDB projections, the structure should have a significant commercial and social impact in East Africa. Thus, the Bank foresees a reduction in the cost of transport and shipping of goods and the extension of markets beyond the national borders of the two countries.

The road corridor is expected to boost the volume of trade between Kenya and Ethiopia as well as the attraction of foreign direct investment. According to the Bank, trade between the two countries should increase fivefold thanks to this infrastructure, rising from 35 to 175 million dollars.

Trade between Kenya and Ethiopia is expected to increase fivefold through infrastructure, from $35 million to $175 million.

In addition, the new international route is expected to generate an additional 900,000 tonnes of cargo transported to or from the port of Mombasa, or 20% of Ethiopia's total sea freight.

“The 895 kilometer road corridor that connects Kenya and Ethiopia has not only facilitated cross-border traffic between the two countries, but is also a major step forward for economic integration in Africa, which has created jobs and improve livelihoods across the region,” says the African Development Bank.

The revival of the Kinshasa-Brazzaville bridge

From August 2020, construction work on a bridge between Brazzaville, Congo, and Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, is expected to begin. The infrastructure, whose implementation initiative dates back several decades, is one of the most important integration projects in Central Africa. In recent years, she had become a real sea serpent.

The Bank has pledged to provide $210 million to finance the project.

It is under the impetus of the African Development Bank that the project is reborn from its ashes, almost two years ago. Indeed, on November 7, 2018, during the first edition of the Africa Investment Forum (AIF 2018) organized by the institution in Johannesburg, South Africa, the Minister of Development of the Republic of Congo, Jean -Jacques Bouya, announces the conclusion of a 550 million dollar agreement between his country and the DRC to build the Kinshasa-Brazzaville bridge. The Bank alone is committed to providing $210 million to finance the project.

Planned to span the Congo River separating the two closest capitals in the world by approximately 1,575 meters, the new infrastructure will include a single railway line, a two-lane road, sidewalks and a border post at each end, and will be connected to the existing road infrastructure on each side of the Congo River.

Once completed, it will facilitate the development of special economic zones on either side of the new bridge, and stimulate human and economic exchanges. It should also make it possible to reduce the risks and costs associated with the only means of transport currently available to go from one capital to another, namely the boat and the plane.

According to the African Development Bank, thanks to the project, the current traffic between the two Congolese capitals, estimated at 750,000 people and 340,000 tonnes of freight per year, should increase to more than three million people and two million tonnes of freight by 2025.

Thanks to the project, the current traffic between the two capitals, estimated at 750,000 people and 340,000 tons of freight per year, is expected to increase to more than 3 million people and 2 million tons of freight by 2025.

“The work will start in August 2020. There you go, we are very precise! Its very important. I salute the efforts and leadership of Presidents Denis Sassou Nguesso for Congo-Brazzaville and Félix Tshisekedi for DR Congo,” African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina said during a May 2019 visit to Congo. , stressing that the Africa50 investment fund should also participate in the financing.

The liquefied natural gas project in Mozambique

With an estimated investment of $23 billion, the Liquefaction of Natural Gas (LNG) project in Mozambique will be the largest oil and gas industry achievement in sub-Saharan Africa, both in oil and gas.

With an estimated investment of $23 billion, the liquefaction of natural gas (LNG) project in Mozambique will be the biggest achievement of the oil and gas industry in sub-Saharan Africa.

Started in 2020, it is the second largest gas project in the world, after Arctic LNG-2 in Russia. It is also the largest foreign direct investment in Africa to date.

In November 2019, the African Development Bank announced that it would release $400 million to support the project. The funds will be used to finance the construction of the plant with a production capacity of 12.9 million tonnes of LNG per year. The project also includes offshore extraction, pipeline, gas processing and liquefaction facilities, an LNG export terminal, primary domestic gas supply infrastructure and other related facilities.

“Opportunities for growth and widespread industrialization, while accelerating regional integration across Southern Africa”

“By working closely with the Government of Mozambique, we can ensure that local people benefit from their nascent natural gas value chain, creating opportunities for growth and widespread industrialization, while accelerating integration. region across southern Africa," said President Adesina.

Construction of the Jorf Lasfar Phosphate Hub in Morocco

In Morocco, the African Development Bank financed the construction works of the Jorf Lasfar Phosphate Hub (JPH) platform of the Office Cherifien des Phosphates (OCP).

In the early 2010s, the objective was to create a structure capable of eventually accommodating several chemical complexes in order to increase the local transformation capacity of phosphate into derivative products. Two loans have been granted by the Bank in this direction. The first, dating from 2012 for an amount of 250 million dollars, is intended to finance the construction of the platform on nearly 1,800 hectares to accommodate ten integrated fertilizer factories. At the end of 2016, the program generated approximately 20,980 direct jobs while the net tax dividends received by the Moroccan government reached 1.7 billion dirhams ($175.6 million).

At the end of 2016, the program generated approximately 20,980 direct jobs while the net tax dividends received by the Moroccan government reached 1.7 billion dirhams ($175.6 million)

The second loan of $200 million, granted at the end of 2018, aims to extend the industrial platform. In concrete terms, it will increase the fertilizer storage capacity by an additional 200,000 tonnes, the construction of a new fertilizer loading platform, the increase in seawater pumping and recovery capacities and the renovation of a certain number of ancillary infrastructures, in particular those of electricity, water and security, at various points of the platform.

The objective is to transform the country's local natural resources (phosphate rock) on the spot into products with high added value (fertilizers), used to increase productivity in the agricultural sector, and to export them to the African continent and around the world. whole.

Jorf Lasfar is the largest fertilizer complex in the world.

According to the African Development Bank, "the expansion project is expected to generate 910 additional jobs in the Jorf Lasfar complex while overall 18,000 new jobs are expected to be created by OCP over the ten years that will last the loan. »

In total, 450 million dollars have therefore been invested by the Bank in this project to improve phosphate production, of which Morocco is today the leading African exporter and the second largest producer in the world.

And also…

Many other major infrastructure projects have been financed by the African Development Bank since its creation in 1964. They range from the Abidjan urban transport project to the expansion of the port of Walvis Bay in Namibia, passing by the drinking water supply and construction of sanitation infrastructure in Kenyan towns.

Over the years, the Bank has made the infrastructure sector its priority. Since 1967, the institution has engaged in 4707 projects, of which more than 3473 have already been completed. West Africa has the highest number of projects (1,246), ahead of East Africa (893), Southern Africa (818), North Africa (562) and Central Africa (404). In 2018, infrastructure accounted for 49.7% of loans approved by the Bank.

In nominal value, so-called “multi-sector” projects concentrate the most investments with more than $26.2 billion, followed by transport ($24.9 billion) and energy ($19.7 billion).

In May 2018, African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina announced that the Bank plans to mobilize $170 billion over the next few years to address the continent's infrastructure gap.