Igad projects to be completed by 2024 - Raila

Most projects under IGAD will be completed by 2024, African Union High Representative for Infrastructure Development Raila Odinga has said.

He made the announcement on Tuesday when he opened the Development Partners Roundtable on IGAD Regional Infrastructure in Nairobi.

It aims to secure support for regional infrastructure to promote economic and integration as it offers unrivalled opportunities for the development partners to exchange views and network among governments and other stakeholders.  

“The IGAD Infrastructure Master plan has highlighted well the Short-Term priority projects. There are 61 projects in transport, nine projects in Energy, 14 projects in ICT, and five projects in trans-boundary waterways,” Raila said.

The key objective of the discussion is to support the implementation of the IGAD Regional Infrastructure Master Plan (IRIMP), which was completed in December 2020 with financial assistance from the African Development Bank (AfDB).

It boasted of a holistic regional Infrastructure invested approach and defined priority regional infrastructure in transport, energy, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and transboundary water projects for investment.

“Our region is constrained by low stock of infrastructure and inadequate infrastructure shaves off at least two per cent of Africa’s annual economic growth. As a consequence, regional integration has fallen short of expectations,” IGAD Executive Secretary Workneh Gebeyehu said.

He added that however, establishment of adequate infrastructure would lead to productivity gains by African firms of up to 40 per cent.

This roundtable aims to create awareness, build confidence and secure support for the policy initiatives and priority investments as reflected in the IRIMP.