The World Bank Board of Executive Directors today approved a US$190 million regional operation to finance transport and transit improvements in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Mali. The financing package consists of three International Development Association (IDA) credits[1]of US$70 million to Burkina Faso, a US$80 million to the Republic of Ghana and a US$40 million to the Republic of Mali for a West Africa Transport and Transit Facilitation project. The three-country project supports the NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa’s Development) transport agenda of trade corridors without borders and barriers, which aims to facilitate trade and promote economic integration in the sub-region. The project also supports the objectives of the first phase (Road Program I) of the Programme d’Actions Communautaire des Infrastructures et du Transport (PACITR) (Community Action Plan for Road Infrastructure and Transport) West Africa Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). The PACITR’s Road Program I is part of a multi-donor effort in the West Africa sub-region to improve transport infrastructure and facilitate trade, transport and transit, funded by the African Development Bank, the European Union and the Banque Ouest Africaine de Développement (West African Development Bank), as well as the three governments. The transport sector in West Africa plays a key role in the economic development of the sub-region and generates about six percent of its Gross Domestic Project (GDP). Transport and transit costs for landlocked countries such as Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger are up to 50 percent higher than for countries with direct access to the sea. These high transport and transit costs translate into high prices of goods for consumers and loss of external competitiveness. The project is consistent with the objectives of the World Bank’s RIAS (Regional Integration Assistance Strategy) for West Africa which focuses on the creation of an open, unified, regional economic space, as a means of creating an environment for a more competitive and efficient private sector. It will also help remove formal and informal barriers to intra-regional trade and contribute to increased trade within the sub-region, and between the sub-region and the rest of the world. The project will improve access by Burkina Faso and Mali to Ghanaian ports, as well as improve port operations and facilitate the efficient movement of traffic along the Tema-Ouagadougou-Bamako road transport corridor. It is also expected to strengthen economic integration of the member countries of the WAEMU/Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) bloc. “This project recognizes the need for regional approaches in a part of Africa where landlocked economies are disadvantaged by costly and unreliable transport, transit and trade processes,” said Fabio Galli, the World Bank Task Team Leader of the project. “As a result, we should see more reliable services, lower general transport costs and better road infrastructure sections along the corridor to better integrate Burkina Faso and Mali to the ports of Ghana and an improved inter state road movement of goods along the corridor.” The Corridor Road Infrastructure Improvement component of the project will improve the road corridor to carry inter and intra-country traffic by: (i) rehabilitating and strengthening key road sections; (ii) constructing rest stop areas; (iii) implementing social and environmental mitigation measures for the civil works; (iv) implementing a corridor-specific HIV/AIDS action plan; and (v) designing and implementing a corridor-specific road safety action plan. The Corridor Transport and Transit Facilitation Measures will strengthen the capacity of customs and transport authorities to better manage the movement of transit traffic along the corridor. This will help construct a satellite transit truck village adjacent to the Port of Tema and rehabilitate and equip Faladie multi-functional platform in Bamako. It will also support the upgrading of customs-relation information and communication technology and extension of cargo tracking system to better monitor and secure transit traffic and build capacity and technical assistance support to improve the effectiveness of customs and transport authorities to monitor and control transit traffic. Source: The World Bank