The Board of Directors of the African Development Fund (www.AfDB.org) approved a loan of $80.93 million to Senegal and Guinea for the construction of a new interstate road linking Labé and Mali in Guinea with Kédougou and Fongolembi in Senegal.

The loan from the concessional window of the African Development Bank Group consists of $41.47 million for Senegal and $39.46 million for Guinea. The financing will be used for construction and asphalting of the road, which will strengthen integration and trade between the two countries, assist the livelihood of local populations and facilitate the delivery to market of forestry, agro-pastoral and mining products.

The road will also offer hauliers in Mali better access to the port of Conakry using the southern Dakar-Bamako corridor, which passes through the town of Kédougou. Construction of rural roads feeding into the highway will make it easier to supply inputs and to collect and transport agricultural produce.

A total of 240.71 km of road will be built, of which 178.11 km in Guinea and 62.60 km in Senegal. The road surface will be made from climate-resilient asphalt concrete with one 3.60-metre lane in each direction and hard shoulders of 1.5 metres. Construction will be co-financed by the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), the West African Development Bank (BOAD) and the governments of the two countries. The project also includes the construction of 150 km of rural roads (100 km in Guinea and 50 km in Senegal) and a further 20.26 km of paved roads, including 14.26 km in Guinea in the towns of Labé and Mali (the town in Guinea, not to be confused with the country of Mali) and six km in Kédougou in Senegal.

Joseph Ribeiro, the AfDB Deputy General Director for West Africa, commented:

“The African Development Bank is a strategic partner of the transport sector in the West African sub-region and beyond. The Bank plays a key role in financing transport-related projects in Senegal and Guinea, using its expertise in the sector for a variety of interventions. The Bank’s involvement in this project confirms the its leadership in infrastructure development on the continent, aimed at strengthening integration and furtherance of the African Continental Free Trade Area.”

The project has direct impact on a region with estimated population of 1,370,812 people in 2020, representing 4.76 percent of the population of the two neighbouring countries.