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The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a grant of $16.5 million to finance the second phase of Zimbabwe’s Urgent Water Supply and Sanitation Rehabilitation Project (UWSSRP) being implemented under the auspices of the Zim-Fund. Zim-Fund, established in 2010, is a multi-donor trust fund created to support priority recovery activities of the Government of Zimbabwe and is managed by the AfDB on behalf of the parties involved.

The key priority areas of the Zim-Fund are infrastructure investments in water and sanitation, and energy. In a statement, the AfDB said the funding was part of the $428.43 million in loans and grants approved by the bank to finance projects in energy, infrastructure, transport and water and sanitation in eight African countries namely Ghana, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Senegal, Gambia and Côte d’Ivoire.

“Zimbabwe will receive a US$16.15-million grant from the resources of the Zimbabwe Fund (Zim-Fund) to finance the second phase of the country’s UWSSRP to be implemented in Harare, Chitungwiza, Ruwa and Redcliff with an estimated 1.9 million population,” the bank said. “The project aims to protect public health through service improvement, preservation of physical assets, and resuscitation of capacity and improvement of financial sustainability of the water and sanitation service providers.”

Under the approvals, Ghana will receive a loan of $120 million to finance upgrades at its airports while Tanzania would receive a $97.42-million loan and a grant of $44.29 million. Gambia will receive combined loans and grants financing amounting to $64.93 million for energy projects and a soft loan of $5.26 million.

Guinea-Bissau will receive a grant amounting to $6.32 million while Senegal will receive a soft loan of $59.66m. The AfDB also approved a $14.4 million grant to help Côte d’Ivoire rebuild its production capacity destroyed during the conflict which affected the country in recent years. — New Ziana.