Afdb pledges $500 million for groundbreaking project linking three nations to boost trade

Dr Adesina suggested five priority areas to fully optimize the benefits of the developing regional corridors across Africa. These include dedicating pooled financing facilities to corridor projects, building special industrial zones around the corridors to optimize existing infrastructure; adopting a systematic approach and platform to syndicate around the development of strategic regional corridors.

He said the development of regional corridors should be complemented with one-stop border posts to facilitate trade and reduce travel times on the corridors. He proposed concessional financing, such as the African Development Fund, which offers low-income countries unmatched resources to commit to developing regional corridors.

Other projects the banks has invested in include the $20 billion Desert-to-Power initiative to develop 10 GW of solar power across 11 countries of the Sahel zone; the Mozambique-Beira corridor transport system; the $259million Kazungula bridge, which has already been commissioned; the $2.7 billion Nacala rail and port project in Mozambique, and the Lagos-Abidjan highway, which secured investment interest of $15.2 billion at the Africa Investment Forum last year.

As of 2022, the African Development Bank had invested $13.5 billion in funding 25 transport corridors, building more than 18,000 km of roads, establishing 27 border posts, and constructing 16 bridges.