The Zambian Ministry of Finance has recently announced that more than USD 400 million proceeding from the USD 1.25 billion sale of Eurobonds in July, 2015 has been set aside for road’s development countrywide.
The announcement was done by Zambia’s Finance Deputy Minister Christopher Mvunga, whom in a recent parliament’s season explained how the proceeds of the last Eurobond sale are being used.
The major allocation has been for development of roads’ infrastructure including rural roads across the country, Deputy Minister Mvunga said.
This investment is part of the Link Zambia 8,000 project which was launched in 2012 and that seeks to improve 8,000 km of roads at a total cost of USD 5.4 billion towards 2017.
The aim is to reduce costs of transport of goods to make local companies more competitive in the foreign market and boost mainly copper exports to support Zambia’s economic growth.
The Zambia’s Road Development Agency (RDA) is the governmental institution in charge of using the Eurobond sale’s proceeds assigned to the transport sector for the development of roads in the country.
Regarding the Eurobond sale’s balance, USD 268 million has been allocated for debt swap and clearance, USD 40 million for maritime equipment, USD 65.5 million for infrastructure development in the education and health sectors, USD 20 million for water and sanitation projects, USD 45.2 million for youth empowerment, USD 21 million for agriculture sector, and the remaining amount has been saved for financing the national budget 2016.
