The African Development Bank (AfDB) has disclosed that its operations in Rwanda, both ongoing and recently approved, are equivalent to US$519 million.

This was announced yesterday in a meeting involving government and AfDB’s Country Portfolio Performance Review (CPPR) officials.

Speaking at the forum, Negatu Makonnen, the AfDB Resident Representative noted that the bank’s active and lately approved portfolio includes 24 operations involving policy based actions.

"The general budget support and sector budget support amount to US$73m, national operations US $73m, Multinational operations US$186m and the Private sector operations US$88m bringing the our total commitments to US$519m,” he said.

Makonnen added that the sectoral distribution of the current operations is 70 percent in infrastructure, 18 percent in agriculture, six percent in human development and three percent for multi-sector and private sector.

"This clearly shows the bank’s focus and support to the areas in line with the division of labour as agreed upon with the government,” he noted.

The meeting brought together government officials, civil society, AfDB project coordinators, and development partners among others.

The CPPR aimed at reviewing the implementation of the government projects and programs financed by the AfDB as well as assessing the progress and challenges faced during the course of implementing those particular projects.

Opening the meeting, Pitchette Kampeta Sayinzoga, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, commended the AfDB for its continued support to Rwanda.

"The bank’s level of project coordination has improved. With the quality of projects reinforced, the overall time spent to process procurement documents has fallen from 50 days in 2005- 2007 to 5-15 days in 2011,” she said.

Sayinzoga, who is also Secretary to the Treasury, called for speedy contract execution of the transport projects which account for 50 percent of the assured portfolio.

"I encourage the project coordinators to embrace the planning and spending that are tailored to targets that we set ourselves because the delays we register bears direct impact on the overall targets of the country,” she stated.

She challenged the AfDB to reduce on the number of operations (24) so as to effectively contribute to the key sectors especially two broad programs by sector, which will lessen on the coordination and transaction costs.

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