Africa-Press – Mozambique. The African Development Bank (AfDB) has provided US$1.6 billion in financing to Mozambique since 2015, the financial institution’s president Akinwumi Adesina said yesterday in Maputo.
“From 2015 to 2025, we have already provided US$1.6 billion to Mozambique. This represents 41% of the AfDB’s financing for Mozambique over the last 45 years, 45% of which has been provided in the last ten years,” the AfDB president said.
Akinwumi Adesina was speaking in Maputo during the general assembly of Africa50, a continental mechanism that finances infrastructure construction, held under the motto: “Mozambique and Africa50: Uniting Infrastructure, Connecting Continents, and Transforming Lives.”
Adesina noted that AfDB has financed projects in the extractive industry, the expansion of the electricity grid and support for agriculture and transportation projects, especially in the centre and north of the country.
Africa50’s executive director, Alain Ebobissé, said on the occasion that Africa50 was eager to work with Mozambique in the gas sector, highlighting that the solution to the continent’s infrastructure problems lies in the hands of its countries themselves.
“The truth is that the solutions to Africa’s infrastructure deficit are already before us,” Ebobissé said. “Africa can and must lead efforts to close the infrastructure gap on our continent, working with our non-African partners. We have the strategy, we have the capital, we have African institutions like Africa50 with proven implementation models. Our mission now is to expand and accelerate, because Africa’s infrastructure needs are urgent.”
“We believe that natural gas is an essential resource for Africa in the energy transition, while also driving industrialization and cleaner growth. We are strong advocates of a balanced energy mix, which proudly includes natural gas,” he added.
On the African continent, Africa50 has in recent years advanced investments that have ensured electricity supply to more than 40 million people, according to information released today by the organization’s executive director.
Africa50 was created by African governments and the African Development Bank to address the infrastructure financing gap in Africa by facilitating project development, mobilizing financing and investing in infrastructure. It currently has 37 shareholders, including Mozambique, which joined last year.
At the opening of the Africa50 general assembly, agreements were signed under which the group will finance the construction of three electricity transmission lines in Mozambique and the construction of a data centre in the Mozambican capital.
The chairman of the board of directors of Eletricidade de Moçambique (EDM), Joaquim Henriques Ou-chim, explained that the agreements will guarantee the construction of a line from the Metoro district in Cabo Delgado province to the Marrupa district in Niassa province, with a capacity of 220 kilovolts (kV).
The second line will run from Chumuarra, in Zambézia province, to Inhaminga district, in Sofala province, with a capacity of 400 kV. A third 220 kV line will connect Metoro in Cabo Delgado with Namialo district in Nampula.
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