The Bank of Investment and Development of ECOWAS (EBID), which is the financial arm of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), is set to release a US$ 119M loan to finance three transport infrastructure projects in Senegal.
This follows an agreement signed in June 2021 by Amadou Hott, the Senegalese Minister of the Economy, Planning, and Cooperation, and Mabouba Diagne, the Vice President of the EBID.
The three projects in question concern both road and rail transport infrastructure. They include upgrading works of the road corridor connecting the West African country with the neighboring republic of Mali and the construction of a bridge at the rail terminus of Blaise Diagne International Airport (AIBD).
The third project is financing the annual road program carried out by the Autonomous Road Maintenance Fund (FERA).
Amount set for each project
The upgrade of the Senegal-Mali road corridor will require a total investment of over US$ 84M of which slightly over US$ 59M will be provided by the EBID and the rest by the Senegalese government.
The construction of the bridge on the other hand, which will take about 18 months to complete, is estimated to cost nearly US$ 16.2M, 94.4% of which will be provided by the financial arm of the ECOWAS.
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According to Minister Amadou Hott, this project has several components, including the construction of a 185-meter pedestrian bridge connecting the station of the Regional Express Train (TER) station to the AIBD terminal, and the construction of technical and commercial premises on either side of the bridge, public spaces, halls and services, passenger buildings, ancillary services and operations such as reception area.
Finally, the total investment required for the road infrastructure development program by FERA is around US$ 70M. EBID will facilitate close to US$ 45M.
