The Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) announced on Tuesday, November 17 at the end of a round table of donors, that it had raised 3.8 billion euros in funds to finance eleven integration projects. regional, to be implemented between 2021 and 2025 in the six CEMAC countries.
“The total amount of funding announced or mobilized (at the end of the roundtable) amounts to around 3.8 billion euros, well beyond the amounts sought. The financing of eight projects out of the eleven has been fully completed, ”declared the permanent secretary of the CEMAC Economic and Financial Reform Program (PREF-CEMAC), Michel-Cyr Djiena Wembou.
This two-day round table, organized in a hybrid format (face-to-face and virtual), aimed to raise funds from bilateral and multilateral, traditional and emerging, public and private partners, in order to cover the financing needs of the eleven projects to be carried out. between 2021 and 2025 in the CEMAC zone: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Chad. The total cost of the projects amounts to 4.072 billion euros, of which 596.74 million euros (14.65%) were already mobilized before the round table. The funding sought was therefore 3.48 billion euros (85.35%).
More than ten multilateral partners and private investors have expressed an interest in contributing to the financing of these projects in a variety of ways.
“Some donors and partners have indicated the projects in which they were interested, in particular on axes 2 and 3 (transport and production, interconnections of electricity and communications networks) and requested additional information to refine their intentions. Other donors and partners have expressed their funding interests subject to receipt of feasibility studies and other documents, which would allow them to specify the amounts and forms of intervention, “said Michel-Cyr Djiena Wembou.
“We will contact the partners to provide them with all the necessary information because we have contributed to the financing of the majority of the feasibility studies of the projects concerned by this round table. In our capacity as leader for the mobilization of resources, we will support CEMAC in the coordination of the commitments made by the partners present at the round table, with a view to helping the materialization of these announcements ”, indicated Joseph. Kouassi N’Guessan, Head of the Infrastructure / Central Africa Division at the African Development Bank.
The Interim Director General of Central Africa at the Bank, Solomane Koné, explained that the financing acquired (approved, signed and / or in progress) at the level of the Bank is 470 million euros and concerned in particular four integrative projects.
“The African Development Bank reiterates its commitment to strengthen coordination with other donors and the private sector in the technical and financial structuring of integrative projects (and) encourages other donors, especially those able to provide concessional loans and grants as well as the private sector, notably through PPPs, to increase their interest and appetite for these integrative projects. This will reduce the debt constraint of the States and accelerate the implementation of projects on a sustainable basis, while ensuring an equitable sharing of the risk “underlined Solomane Koné.
The African Development Bank is the leader of technical and financial partners for infrastructure development in Central Africa. It has already provided support for carrying out the studies necessary for the maturation of many projects included in the Consensual Transport Master Plan in Central Africa (PDCT-AC).
The Bank has mobilized 1.13 billion euros for transport projects in Central Africa over the 2015-2019 period. About 30% of this funding was devoted to the development and renovation of road corridors between states in the region.
