The Zambian government has recently signed two concessional loans of USD 193 million with the African Development Bank (AfDB) and USD 50 million with the Africa Growing Together Fund (AGTF) for improvements on the Chinsali-Nakonde road in Zambia’s north eastern region.
The loans are meant to upgrade 210 km of main roads, 50 km of feeder roads, construction of service stations, institutional support, and capacity building to reduce costs between northern Zambia and southern Tanzania by eliminating non-tariff barriers as those product of the lack of infrastructure and services on the road.
The upgrades are also meant to promote socio-economic development, since it is a strategic national and regional road that connects eight countries as part of the Trans Africa Highway, which goes from Cape Town in South Africa to Cairo in Egypt.
The road constitutes a key infrastructure project and will help the country to develop its infrastructure since the loans offer smoothly rates and due dates of 1% per annum and 20 years, explained Zambia’s Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda.
In addition, it will support the government to complete other projects to achieve an efficient transport system across Zambia and implement cost-effective and fully-integrated infrastructure and operations to address the users’ needs and socio-economic development, explained AfDB Resident Representative to Zambia, Damoni Kitabire.
According to the AfDB, the road is in line with the Bank’s 2013-2022 strategy for development in the Sub-Saharan Region, since it will help to enhance the link between the cooper belt in Southern DR Congo and the Dar es Salaam Port in Tanzania.
