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PIDA Progress Report 2016

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PIDA Progress Report 2016

PIDA Progress Report 2016
Photo credit: Shutterstock

Foreword by Dr Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, NEPAD Agency CEO

Africa is a young and vibrant continent. This is considering its rapidly growing young population. According to the UN, 226 million people between the age of 15 and 24 resided in Africa in 2015, accounting for 19% of the global youth population. Africa’s young population is expected to continue to grow throughout the remainder of the 21st century to the point where it is more than double existing levels in 2055. It is projected that the number of youth in Africa will grow by 42% by 2030. If Africa is going to harness this potential to help achieve the desired economic growth envisioned by the Agenda 2063, it will have to provide employment opportunities for its growing young population.

PIDA’s investments into infrastructure will create direct jobs during the construction phases and indirectly via opportunities that arise from the availability of the infrastructure, including an increased demand for goods and services. Spin-offs from economic growth due to an increase in trade and regional integration will provide more employment opportunities, considering improved economic performance as a result of investment into infrastructure. For this reason, PIDA acts as an important catalyst for job creation and youth empowerment through its engendered approach.

The strengthening of capacity at the NEPAD Agency and in the RECs, through the PIDA CAP has led to significant progress in implementing PIDA projects. Milestones include projects on the BDC and NSC where governance framework MoUs between the respective member states have been finalised and an acceleration methodology implemented to identify, select and package priority projects. This is complemented by the significant progress made in implementing the ZTK Power Interconnector.

Meanwhile, the prioritisation and showcasing of projects from the CC, EAC and ECOWAS are evidence that, with technical support from the NEPAD Agency, the AUC, RECs and, importantly, commitment from member states, it is possible to achieve significant progress in PIDA projects. PIDA, Africa’s largest infrastructure development programme, will lead to the success of Agenda 2063.

Through the CBN, we succeeded in engaging the private sector to participate in and contribute to the PIDA. This was achieved by focusing on understanding the real, as opposed to the perceived risks of associated with the projects. This led to recommendations being made on de-risking them, while garnering significant interest from private sector participants on PIDA infrastructure investment opportunities. The CBN Report on De-risking Infrastructure and PIDA Projects in Africa provides a deeper understanding and context of a de-risked PIDA project. We therefore envisage that this will lead to increased investment from domestic and international investors, including pension and sovereign-wealth funds, as well as other long-term investors. We will, therefore, continue our interaction with the private sector to ensure that its interest in PIDA infrastructure investment opportunities grows significantly.

Importantly, the report also details the so-called “soft” issues and programmes, while supplying a breakdown on PIDA project progress by the RECs where data is available. In addition, it provides highlights of a preliminary review of the PIDA PAP, which is the guiding framework for the first phase of implementation of the programme. The report also highlights progress made with the 16 priority PIDA projects that reached consensus at the 2014 Dakar Financing Summit. It presents a candid review of the challenges and lessons learnt to ensure continued and accelerated implementation of projects.


Key lessons learned and recommendations

Given the complexity of PIDA, it is pertinent that we draw from collective lessons across thematic, geographic and specific project experiences to improve implementation of the programme. Lessons learned provide their greatest value when they are disseminated to the broad range of stakeholders.

The following are lessons learned from RECs, partners and project implementers on PIDA implementation:

  • Capacity building and human-resource development are essential for the faster implementation of PIDA.

  • Corridor development should be done together with capacity building on the maintenance aspects. This is considering the need for maintenance over the entire lifecycle of the infrastructure.

  • Strong commitments between bordering countries are essential for successful implementation of OSBPs.

  • Political commitment is a prerequisite for advancement of PIDA projects with many stakeholders. This is considering that there are different national stakeholders and ministries, privatesector players, continental and regional organisations as well as investors and financiers, to name a few.

  • Sharing of important information on PIDA projects remain a challenge and is still a bottleneck.

  • The designation of a champion president or minister helps to engender high-level commitment for the programme.

  • Regional priorities may not necessary coincide with national priorities. There is, therefore, a need to stay abreast of national priorities and provide an opportunity to update the project lists.

  • All regional priority projects need to be brought to the attention of the implementing ministry as early as possible. It is not a given that the participation of the key ministers in the formulation will result in a project receiving priority status.

  • There is a need to co-ordinate engagement with the private sector, considering that more entities are being established to attract private sector involvement in infrastructure delivery. A different approach is required to ensure business working groups are well coordinated and that any of their proposals are adopted at CBN level.

  • Systematic evaluation of performance is critical to assess PIDA project processes and take corrective action.

The following are key recommendations:

  • Effective implementation of PIDA requires partners to increase resource commitments to the agency and AU to support programme implementation, invest in capacity building and support core operational activities.

  • There is a need for enhanced coordination of the various institutions involved in PIDA to avoid duplication, while ensuring greater synergies and more effective deployment of scarce resources.

  • As country priorities change, there needs to be an intermittent window where the priority project lists can be updated. This will ensure PIDA is updated on sociopolitical development and member state priorities.


The PIDA Implementation Progress Report 2016 is the outcome of collaboration between all PIDA stakeholders who shared information on projects and interventions on the ground and on progress being made. The core team comprised staff of the NEPAD Agency, with input provided by the AUC Department of Infrastructure and Energy.

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