SPONSOR WIRE
The Executive
Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group on Wednesday approved
the institution's Information Technology Strategy 2013-2015 and the Bank
Group's Participation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Transition
Fund.
At their regular
weekly meeting in Tunis, the Board also approved over US $107 million (UA 69.95
million) in loans and grants to finance projects in Zimbabwe, Nacala Corridor
in Mozambique, and the integration of payments systems in East Africa.
Information
Technology Strategy 2013 - 2015
The IT strategy lays
out the various changes which the Bank's Information Management and Methods
(CIMM) department will make over a three-year period to help the institution
deliver results.
These include
aligning the IT delivery capacity along the Bank's Long Term Strategy (LTS);
enabling organizational effectiveness through efficient use of IT systems;
providing effective support to the Bank's decentralization strategy;
maintaining financial soundness and business continuity; and achieving lower
costs while building capacity via "economies of skills."
The
Bank Group's Participation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
Transition Fund
The Proposal for the
Bank's participation as an implementation support agency for the MENA Transition
Fund being administered by the World Bank, delegates to AfDB Management the
approval authority for proposals under the Fund for the benefit of MENA
countries that are members of the Bank Group. The Fund will provide grant
funding for technical cooperation and pilot projects that could address a broad
range of inter-related thematic areas covering finance, trade, and governance.
Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia are qualified to receive support under the
facility.
The
Zimbabwe Capacity Building Project for Public Finance and Economic Management
(CBPFEM)
The US $24.74
million (UA 16.12 million) approved to CBPFEM will be used to leverage capacity
in two key areas: i) Enhanced capacity for public financial management,
including debt management, and revenue collection; and (ii) improve capacities
for the implementation of the Medium Term Plan (MTP), legal and institutional
framework for PPPs, statistical development, and regional integration
framework.
The
Mozambique-Nacala Road Corridor project Phase III
The Bank's support -
US $59.32 million (UA 38.65 million) and US $0.28 million (UA 0.18 million) ADF
loan and grant - will be used to improve transportation from Mozambique, Malawi
and Zambia to the port of Nacala. It will also help improve transport linkages
within Mozambique (Niassa and Nampula provinces) to economic opportunities and
social services.
The
EAC Payment and Settlement Systems Integration Project
The African
Development Fund Board approved a Grant of US $23.02 million (UA 15 million) to
finance the improvement and integration of the payment systems in Burundi,
Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. The project would contribute to the
modernization, harmonization and integration of payment and settlement systems
in the EAC Partner States.
African Development Bank (Tunis)