AfDB reaffirms support to ZIM

THE African Development Bank (AfDB) says it is committed to support efforts by government to turn around the economic and social situation prevailing in the country.

Addressing delegates at the launch of the Youth and Tourism Enhancement Project (YTEP) and the Governance and Institutional Strengthening Project (GISP), AfDB resident representative Mateus Magala said his bank will work with government and other stakeholders in changing the status quo in Zimbabwe.

“…As the AfDB celebrates its 50th anniversary, permit me to seize this opportunity to once again reaffirm the commitment and availability of the African Development Bank Group to support the efforts of the government of Zimbabwe in addressing the major challenges to socio-economic development in the country.

“The AfDB will continue to work with the government and partners to restore business confidence and to help the country to fully reengage,” Magala said.

The projects approved by the executive board of the AfDB in December 2013 will see the YTEP and the GISP projects being financed to the tune of US$4.1million and US$8million respectively.

The funded projects are set to contribute towards improving public sector capacity for economic recovery and inclusive growth as to the reduction of youth unemployment and poverty in Zimbabwe through sustainable pro-poor economic growth and improved socio-economic development led by the private sector.

And Magala said to achieve these goals, the projects will strengthen the enabling environment in order to improve the competitiveness of the private sector and thereby promote broad-based economic growth and development, export diversification and job creation.

The AfDB boss also called for effective leadership from the ministry of finance and economic development who will be managing the implementation of the project to ensure effective collaboration among all stakeholders and ensure that it is efficiently executed.

“I would like to call on all of you that will be implementing these projects to learn from experiences of other Bank supported projects. Issues of rules and procedures, financial management, procurement, monitoring and evaluation should be comprehensively discussed in order to start the implementation of these projects on a good platform.

“So often projects fail because of poor implementation and we hope this will not be the case with this excellent project,” he said.

The bank said its support to YTEP and GISP is consistent with the government’s  priorities as enshrined in the Medium Term Plan (MTP 2011-2015) and the Zimbabwe Agenda for Socio-Economic Transformation (ZimAsset 2013-2018), as well as AfDB’s 2013-2022 strategy that focuses on growth  that is inclusive across age and geographies.

Thus these projects are designed to seize the youth dividend by enhancing the skills of Zimbabwean youth for improved employability, job creation, competitiveness and development of the private sector and poverty reduction.