The African Development Bank is considering doubling its investments in Africa’s infrastructure sector to USD10 billion in five years’ time, according to an AfDB senior official.
A recent increase in AfDB’s core capital has allowed the bank to allocate more money for infrastructure projects, said Alex Rugamba, AfDB’s director for regional integration and trade, according to Reuters.
Rugamba said: “There’s a big interest in projects that can transform economies… for instance there’s big talk about railways. We want to revamp our railways. So if the trends continue as they are now, I would say within five years’ time we’ll be committing up to $10 billion per year on infrastructure.”
He added that AfDB wants to expand cross-border infrastructure that will promote trade between and within African countries. According to him, the bank is eying funding for infrastructure such as regional power grids, submarine cable and roads linking neighboring countries.
