EADB pledges technical support for bankable projects

East African Development Bank (EADB) will partner with other financial institutions in Rwanda to provide technical support to the business community to develop bankable projects, a top official has revealed. This was announced, last week, during the official launch of the Bank’s operations in Rwanda, targeting to invest across key economic sectors. Vivienne Yeda Apopo, the Director General of EADB, said that the Bank will co-finance different projects in fisheries, agriculture, manufacturing, transport and mining. Others include construction, communication, financial services and logistics. She said that, over the past five years, the Bank approved investments worth more than $250 million, with medium and long-term funding accounting for over 85 percent. “This implies that developmental considerations will be the critical determining factor of the Bank’s interventions,” Apopo said. She assured that the Bank’s portfolio is well diversified to enable the realization of a significant developmental impact. Alloys Mutabingwa, the deputy Secretary General of EAC said that the bloc is targeting to realise a demonstrable and dramatic upturn from the current average of 5 percent GDP growth to between 10 percent and 12 percent in the next five years. “We stand chances of shifting from the current per capita income of $300 average to at least $700 which the EAC countries attained in 1977 at the verge of its unfortunate collapse,” Mutabingwa said. Mutabingwa, who is in charge of Planning and Infrastructure Development in EAC, observed that a sound common market requires reliable and efficient market infrastructure network. He noted that EAC is finalizing a ten-year transport strategy and an industrial development strategy which can be effectively implemented only if member states agreed to pull resources together. “We need a reliable and self sustaining system for financing our development initiatives,” he said. He assured that, as a region ,it’s possible to become a middle income economic setting by, latest, 2025. Ends

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EADB pledges technical support for bankable projects