{"id":3261,"date":"2021-09-14T10:31:03","date_gmt":"2021-09-14T10:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/afdb-spent-m800m-on-lesotho"},"modified":"2021-09-14T10:31:03","modified_gmt":"2021-09-14T10:31:03","slug":"afdb-spent-m800m-on-lesotho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/afdb-spent-m800m-on-lesotho","title":{"rendered":"AfDB spent M800m on Lesotho"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Lesotho<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>The Africa Development Bank (AfDB) has in the last four years poured nearly US$56 million (more than M800 million) into eight identified development projects in Lesotho aimed at spurring private sector growth, a top bank official revealed this week.<\/p>\n

Benson Bumbe Nkhoma, a senior country programme officer, said the funds went towards boosting communications, power generation, water and sanitation, and to a variety of sectors.<\/p>\n

The bank \u2013 set up to assist African countries in their efforts to achieve economic development and social progress \u2013 funded the Lesotho projects between 2013 and 2017.<\/p>\n

Over the last nine years, the country had however been allocated a total US$65.5 million in almost three equal tranches released once every three years for both government and private sector projects. Nkhoma told a non-governmental organisations conference that the funding was two-pronged identified as:<\/p>\n

\u201cInfrastructure development, aimed at creating conditions for private sector development to improve the country\u2019s infrastructure base in order to provide more accessible, reliable and less costly infrastructure services which will boost productivity, competitiveness and, private sector activity in key sectors such as agriculture and industry, while strengthening regional integration.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstitutional capacity building aimed at improving governance and accountability and the quality of life of the people of Lesotho through enhanced public sector efficiency and effectiveness,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The communications sector got 19 percent of the total outlay, while power received 20 percent of this amount. Water and sanitation was awarded 23 percent of the money with multi-sector getting 38 percent of the funds.<\/p>\n

Nkhoma said these projects would go some way towards enhancing economic and social progress in Lesotho through promoting investments of public and private capital in projects and programmes that are likely to contribute to the economic development of its stakeholders.<\/p>\n

Projects capitalised included economic diversification support technical assistance, the Lesotho Lowlands rural water supply and sanitation project, urban distribution rehabilitation and transmission expansion; and renewable energy integration studies.<\/p>\n

The bank also supported e-government infrastructure, the Lesotho economic diversification support project and modernisation of the Lesotho Revenue Authority (LRA).<\/p>\n

Lesotho, Nkhoma added, was in line for further funding for e-government, and climate change adaption for sustainable rural water supply in the lowlands projects.<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s applications will be table before the AfDB board \u2013 where the country is represented by finance minister Moeketsi Majoro \u2013 in March and July next year.<\/p>\n

Nkhoma urged civil society organisations to latch onto the AfDB\u2019s 10-year strategy \u2013 which is also mounted on good governance and accountability \u2013 to apply for funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cCSOs should tap from these (AfDB) Trust Funds to implement programmes and projects .<\/p>\n

CSOs have a critical role to play in the social and economic development of Lesotho,\u201d adding: \u201cWe are development partners in supporting the government of Lesotho to achieve its development aspirations.<\/p>\n

Nkhoma, who is based in Pretoria at one of the bank\u2019s country offices, said the bank did not impose projects on member countries but aligned support to individual countries\u2019 needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe align support to the country\u2019s plan taking into account its priorities,\u201d he said, adding although Lesotho had accessed development funding, its draw down paled into insignificance when compared to fellow Sadc member states, Namibia and South Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth Africa is getting a lion\u2019s share of the funds amounting to US$2 billion while Namibia has been capitalised to the tune of US$1,2 billion.<\/p>\n

\u201d South African state-owned entreprises, including Transnet and Eskom, were some of bank\u2019s major clients.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth African private sector borrowing is substantial. Recently we gave Transnet US$174 million for recapitalisation projects. \u201d Nkhoma allayed the CSO members\u2019 fears that corrupt officials would gobble the funds released for public sector projects.<\/p>\n

The bank, he said, first ensured project related monitoring systems including financial management were in place before money was released. \u201cWe audit the projects and demand unqualified reports.<\/p>\n

If we receive qualified reports, we investigate with a view to take corrective measures. \u201d Njeri Mwangi, AfDB senior CSO officer for Sadc, urged civil society to play an oversight role over governments and how borrowed funds were spent.<\/p>\n

\u201cCivil society should monitor national budgets and track all funds coming into the country. They should make government accountable,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. The Africa Development Bank (AfDB) has in the last four years poured nearly US$56 million (more than M800 million) into eight identified development projects in Lesotho aimed at spurring private sector growth, a top bank official revealed this week. Benson Bumbe Nkhoma, a senior country programme officer, said the funds went towards […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":3260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,6,7,8,16],"tags":[242,233,246,245],"class_list":["post-3261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-files","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"\nAfDB spent M800m on Lesotho - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/afdb-spent-m800m-on-lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AfDB spent M800m on Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Africa-Press – Lesotho. The Africa Development Bank (AfDB) has in the last four years poured nearly US$56 million (more than M800 million) into eight identified development projects in Lesotho aimed at spurring private sector growth, a top bank official revealed this week. Benson Bumbe Nkhoma, a senior country programme officer, said the funds went towards […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/afdb-spent-m800m-on-lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-09-14T10:31:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/09\/img-61407f1618b6f.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"662\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/afdb-spent-m800m-on-lesotho#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/afdb-spent-m800m-on-lesotho\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"AfDB spent M800m on Lesotho\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-09-14T10:31:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/afdb-spent-m800m-on-lesotho\"},\"wordCount\":694,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/afdb-spent-m800m-on-lesotho#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/09\/img-61407f1618b6f.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa\",\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\",\"files\",\"head lines\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/afdb-spent-m800m-on-lesotho#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/afdb-spent-m800m-on-lesotho\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/afdb-spent-m800m-on-lesotho\",\"name\":\"AfDB spent M800m on Lesotho - 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