AfDB backs Tanzania-Kenya road

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has agreed to provide two loans worth a combined $232.5 million for a 157.5-kilometre (km) road project from Arusha to Holili in Tanzania and from Taveta to Voi in Kenya. 

 

Tanzania will receive $120 million of the AfDB’s commitment, while Kenya will get around $113 million. The $262 million project is also being funded by the government of Kenya ($15.6 million), the government of Tanzania ($12.3 million) and the Africa Trade Fund ($740,000). 

 

The Arusha-Holili/Taveta-Voi road is a transport corridor in the East African region linking the Northern Corridor at Voi to the Central Corridor across the border at Holili/Taveta, passing through Arusha and Babati to Dodoma and Singida. 

 

The project, expected to complete by December 2018, comprises: the construction of the Arusha Bypass (42.4km); the dualling of the Sakina-Tengeru section (14.1km); the construction of two roadside amenities at Tengeru and one each at Bura and Maktau; the upgrading of the Taveta-Mwatate section (89km); and construction of the Taveta Bypass (12km). 

 

The road is one of the transport corridors in the East Africa region that is meant to reduce the cost of doing business, increase the competitiveness of the region in the global market and promote regional integration. 

 

At completion, the corridor will link the Kenyan port of Mombasa with northern and north-western Tanzania and the landlocked countries of Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda – providing them with a route to the sea.