The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has approved a US$165 million loan to Madagascar to develop vital trade corridors and enhance regional connectivity.
The funding, approved in Abidjan on December 11, will support the third phase of a significant infrastructure project aimed at improving trade routes across the country, according to an official statement from the bank.
"The financing will be provided by the African Development Fund, the concessional lending arm of the Bank Group,” said Adam Amoumoun, the bank’s country manager for Madagascar.
“The project seeks to promote economic and social integration in southern Madagascar by ensuring accessibility across the entire region.
“This will be achieved by constructing and operationalising transport corridors connecting the region to the rest of the country and the African continent, while also streamlining trade facilitation procedures between the ports of Tuléar and Beira.
“In the long term, the project will significantly boost national and intra-regional trade, encouraging investment. Simultaneously, it will create new economic opportunities for local communities by improving trade in agricultural products, livestock, and fish. This initiative will drive economic growth and help reduce poverty by increasing access to markets.”
Solomon Quaynor, vice president for Private Sector, Infrastructure, and Industrialisation at the AfDB, said: “By improving essential road infrastructure, we are not merely building roads but unlocking lifelines to economic opportunity and social advancement. These roads will directly connect rural communities to markets, healthcare, and education, while also fostering entrepreneurship, boosting trade, and empowering women and youth through sustainable employment.”
The project will upgrade key road infrastructure in the southern regions of Atsimo Andrefana and Menabe.
It includes the modernisation of a 78-kilometre stretch of road between Bevoay and Morombe, which traverses critical agricultural areas producing 29 000 tonnes of crops annually.
