Tarred roads, bridged rivers
USD 88 million investment for roads in West Africa.
Liberia and Sierra Leone are the founder members of the inter-governmental organisation Mano River Union, which has four member states today. Now the African Development Fund (AfDF) has allocated substantial funds to the body to improve their road networks.
The Mano River Union (MRU), founded in 1973, is named after the 400 km Mano River, which forms a part of the border between Liberia and Sierra Leone. The goals of the inter-governmental organisation, which Guinea subsequently joined in 1980 and Ivory Coast in 2008, include intensifying economic and technical collaboration between its members.
Now the African Development Bank’s African Development Fund (AfDF) has agreed to finance the third phase of an MRU road development and transportation facilitation programme. The AfDF has granted USD 35.1 million to Sierra Leone and USD 8.9 million to Liberia; the latter will additionally receive a USD 31.8 million AfDF loan and a USD 12.4 million loan from the AfDF’s ‘transition support facility window’.
These funds will be invested in upgrading to bitumen standard 50 km of roads in Liberia and 25 km in Sierra Leone. They’ll also finance feasibility studies for 170 km of roads in Sierra Leone and Liberia and for a project to construct a 276 m bridge over the Makona River, between Guinea and Sierra Leone.