$100 million from the African Development Bank for the Bissau-Dakar road corridor | African Development Bank

The African Development Bank is financing the construction of the road corridor between Bissau and Dakar. On Wednesday, November 9, 2022 in Abidjan, the Board of Directors gave the green light to the financing of USD 100.73 million, intended for the realization of the first phase of the Farim-Tanaff-Sandinieri project.

Thus, the Bank’s financial support will be used to implement part of the Bissau-Dakar Road Corridor Improvement Project. The funding breaks down as follows: a $53.51 million grant and a $35.62 million loan from the African Development Fund – the Bank Group’s concessional lending window – for Guinea-Bissau and Senegal, respectively; to which is added a $11.60 million grant to Guinea-Bissau, provided by the Transition Support Facility, a banking mechanism that enables fast, simple and flexible disbursements to fragile states of the continent.

The project includes the construction of 49.40 kilometers of paved road – 23 kilometers in Guinea-Bissau and 26.40 kilometers in Senegal – and the construction of a 325-meter bridge in the town of Farim, in Guinea-Bissau, over the River cache. .

The other works consist of the construction of 82 kilometers of track, including 58.6 kilometers in Senegal and 24 kilometers in Guinea-Bissau. In addition, 8.5 kilometers of roads with public solar lighting will be built in Farim in Guinea-Bissau and in Goudomp, Tanaff and Badin in Senegal.

Related infrastructure will also be built for the benefit of the two countries (20 boreholes, 6 horticultural areas, 2 multipurpose platforms, rehabilitation of school and health infrastructure, support for women’s groups and a bus station). Four signage portals will also be built at the entrance of the municipalities of Farim in Guinea-Bissau and Sédhiou, Goudomp and Tanaff in Senegal.

“This project will improve the service level of the Fatim-Tanaff-Sandinieri road, as well as the safety and crossing of the Cacheu River to access the capital of Guinea-Bissau,” said Mohamed Chérif, the country’s manager of the African Development Bank in Senegal. And to add: “In particular, the project will make it possible to remove some of the obstacles to the movement of goods and people related to customs controls between the two countries”.

The Farim-Tanaff-Sandiniéri sections are located in the regions of Oio (central north) in Guinea-Bissau and Sédhiou (northwest) in Senegal. As part of the community roads of the West African Economic and Monetary Union, these road sections have a wider area of ​​influence, covering other regions of the two countries, as well as neighboring Guinea and The Gambia.