Uganda: COMESA Earmarks $74 Million For Kampala-Jinja Highway Expansion

By Staff Writer

Common market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has identified 75 km of the Kampala-Jinja highway as one of the six infrastructure projects selected to be developed by the block during a Financing Summit for Africa’s Infrastructure in Dakar, Senegal.

The six projects, identified by the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), are to be implemented by the year 2020.

The summit’s objective was to mobilize key stakeholders around the ongoing efforts by the African Union (AU) including the New Partnership for Africa’s Development Programme (NEPAD), to speed up the implementation of priority regional economic infrastructure projects.

The highway is expected to cost about $74 million which is part of the total estimate of $8 billion for the six COMESA projects.

These were presented to potential sponsors, developers, and financiers to work through project risks, regulatory constraints, and other obstacles to bankability.

Approximately $68 billion would be required for the implementation of the 16 priority projects identified by the PIDA Priority Action Programme until 2020.

“The six COMESA projects finances make 12.5 % of the $68 billion of the 16 priority projects identified by the PIDA Priority Action Programme until 2020,” said COMESA Secretariat.

PIDA is the African Union blueprint for regional and continental infrastructure development for the period, 2012 to 2040. It is jointly coordinated by the African Union Commission (AUC) and NEPAD programme.

COMESA has urged other trade blocks in Africa such as  Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Southern African Development Community (SADC), Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and East African Community (EAC) to increase trade activities and development among member states in order to facilitated the continent’s economic independence and stability.