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ETHIOPIA
Ethiopia gets a shot in the arm

Published: 15-DEC-06

Addis Ababa - The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group said on Wednesday that it would support the Ethiopian governments’ proposal to upgrade the Jima-Mizan road in the South-Western part of the country with a loan of about $98mn. This was approved on Wednesday by the Board of Directors of the African Development Fund (ADF), the concessional window of the AfDB Group.

The Jima-Mizan Road Upgrading Project, which covers a distance of 227.18km, aims at improving transportation services between the towns of Jima and Mizan and facilitating market integration with the rest of the country and abroad.

It is expected that improving the efficiency and capacity of the transport system will enhance social and economic development programmes in Ethiopia in a sustainable way, the AfDB said in a release.

The immediate beneficiaries of the project will be the populations living within the project area, especially traders who will gain wider access to markets for their goods.

Given the dominance of agricultural activities in the area, farmers will also benefit from the road that will make it more convenient to convey their produce to the markets.

The upgraded and all-weather road between Jima and Mizan Teferi forms the main trunk link road for exporting coffee from Keffa.

Livestock farmers will also benefit as improved road surfaces make it possible to provide extension services to the project area.

Other beneficiaries will be landowners, local and district authorities, NGOs and other community-based organizations.

The project cost estimate is 101.53 million Units of Account (UA), which is equal to $101.53mn. The ADF loan will finance 64.02 percent of the project, while the Ethiopian government will provide the remaining 35.98 percent of project cost.-panapress