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Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Reporter

THE Rural Infrastructural Development Agency (Rida), formerly the District Development Fund (DDF), will not undertake any new road and bridge construction projects under the Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP) before existing and unfinished projects are completed.

Rida has a number of projects underway in Matabeleland region such as the Binga air strip, Binga-Siyakobvu road surfacing in Binga District, Chentali irrigation dam construction in Hwange District as well as Chiefs’ Access Road Rehabiliation Programme and borehole drilling across the country.

District Development Fund (DDF)

The agency was allocated $7,7 billion in the 2023 budget to carry out its mandate of providing infrastructure development services as part of its new mandate of modernising public infrastructure in rural areas, communal and resettlement areas through construction of schools, clinics and other infrastructure and amenities.

In an interview, the agency’s director-general Mr Christopher Shumba said the budget allocation excludes resources that will come from the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara). He said under the new mandate given to the agency by President Mnangagwa, Rida will now be the contractor of choice in local authorities in their utilisation of devolution allocations on infrastructure development.

“Rida’s priority projects will be anchored on works which are likely not to be completed this side of the year. The agency will ensure that all Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP) projects under roads and bridge construction currently in progress are completed before new projects are commenced,” said Mr Shumba.

“As already pronounced by His Excellency, the agency was given a new mandate of modernising public infrastructure in rural areas through construction of schools, clinics and other infrastructure and amenities for inclusive transformation of rural economies and communities.

What this means is Rida will be the contractor of choice to be contracted by rural authorities as they seek to utilise their devolution allocations on infrastructure development.”

Mr Shumba said the agency will utilise over $3,75billion on construction and maintenance of roads and bridges in rural, communal and resettlement areas utilising.

A total of $3, 95billion is for potable water through drilling of boreholes, construction and maintenance of small to medium dams and irrigation schemes.

The agency has a road network of more than 32 000km across the country which it has been actively working on and is also heavily involved in the drilling of 35 000 boreholes under the Presidential Borehole Drilling Scheme.

“We are also expecting new projects which may not have been directly allocated to Rida to be coming from local authorities under the devolution agenda, for implementation by Rida through provision of technical expertise and labour as a contractor of first choice.

“This will of necessity cut out on overhead costs associated with private contracting as well as cutting down on construction time since Rida will not be tendering for these projects under devolution funds.

Drilling of boreholes

“Therefore, when one looks at what was allocated to Rida, one needs to understand it within the context that there are other projects which Rida will be doing whose budgets lie in other line ministries like construction of schools and clinics as well as provision of potable water in these institutions,” said Mr Shumba.