PIDA Week: Improving project bankability key to bridging Africa’s infrastructure gap

Preparing a pipeline of bankable sustainable infrastructure projects is vital, participants of the Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) Week heard as it opened this week in Swakapomund, Namibia.
This, according to high-level speakers from the African Union Commission, the NEPAD Agency, the African Development Bank and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), is key to closing the infrastructure gap and creating jobs in the continent.
In his official opening address, Namibia’s Minister of Works and Transport, Alpheus GNaruseb, called for strong coordination in the implementation of PIDA and the preparation of bankable, investment-ready projects that can attract financing for implementation.
The Director for Infrastructure and Energy at the African Union Commission, Cheikh Bedda, said that policy makers, infrastructure experts and the private sector have a crucial role to play in training and skills acquisition in infrastructure development to prepare young Africans for the implementation of complex programmes such as PIDA.
Co-organized by the African Union Commission, the NEPAD Agency and African Development Bank, Africa’s premier infrastructure meeting, the 2017 PIDA Week is ongoing in Swakopmund, Namibia on the theme “Regional Infrastructure Development for Job Creation and Economic Transformation”.
At the PIDA Week, the NEPAD Agency also launched its pioneering 2017 PIDA Progress Report, which is the outcome of collaboration between all PIDA stakeholders who shared information on projects and interventions on the ground and on progress made during the year.
After two successive record-breaking years, 2017 PIDA Week is shaping up to be the hottest ever registered, welcoming more than 300 leading thinkers from international institutions, government, academia, business and finance, engaged in ground breaking debate on the opportunities and the challenges of investing in infrastructure in Africa.