The first-ever Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) Week opened on Friday, November 13 in Abidjan, with the African Development Bank (AfDB) reiterating its commitment to supporting efforts seeking to address the continent’s infrastructure needs.

Moono Mupotola, AfDB’s Director for NEPAD, Regional Integration and Trade, said implementation of the PIDA Priority Action Plan (PAP) projects, which PIDA Week will examine, will have a direct impact on the Bank’s ability to deliver on its five new focus areas. Under the new AfDB President, those priorities are to Light up and power Africa; Feed Africa; Industrialise Africa; Integrate Africa; and Improve the quality of life for the African people.

“Energy plays a big part in industrialisation and job creation,” Mupotola said, adding that the energy sector will consume 59 percent of PIDA PAP’s estimated investment of US $68 billion to be realised in 2020. The other sectors are transport, water and ICT.

In bridging the financing gap, Ibrahim Mayaki, NEPAD Agency’s Chief Executive Officer, called on private sector participation and the need to increase domestic resources in the face of dwindling donor assistance. “We need bankable projects to attract private sector investment,” he said.

The discussions also highlighted the issue of sound policy measures and reforms to guarantee private sector partnership that will lead to, among other things, job creation.

Job creation, particularly for the youth, could be realised through developing agriculture, which goes hand-in-hand with boosting rural infrastructure, according to Rhoda Peace Tumusiime, African Union’s Commissioner for rural economy and agriculture. She described infrastructure as a catalyst for achieving most of Africa’s development.

“I see a lot of connectedness between infrastructure, agriculture, rural development and trade,” she stated. “Infrastructure has increased intra-African trade from 11 to 16 percent in the past few years, she noted.

Over the last decade, the AfDB has invested directly over US $30 billion in infrastructure, which has constituted over 50 percent of the Bank’s lending activities.

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High level forum to brainstorm on solutions for integrating Africa through

The first-ever Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) Week will be held at the African Development Bank (AfDB) headquarters in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, from November 13 to 17, 2015, under the theme “Accelerating Infrastructure Implementation for Africa’s Integration”.

PIDA is a joint initiative of the Africa Union Commission (AUC), the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the AfDB. It seeks to promote regional economic integration by bridging Africa’s massive infrastructure gap that hampers the continent’s competitiveness in the global market.

The infrastructure deficit is traced to Africa’s colonization. “The delay that Africa accumulated during colonization gave to the Continent an infrastructure system that harms its own development. PIDA is a strategy to break those barriers and set continental priorities which brought consensus and commitments both at technical and political levels,” observed NEPAD Agency’s Chief Executive Officer, Ibrahim Mayaki.

The initiative provides a common framework for African stakeholders to build the infrastructure necessary to increase intra-African trade, boosting socio-economic development across the continent. PIDA estimates the cost of closing Africa’s infrastructure deficit to be about US $360 billion between 2011 and 2014, with significant investments required by 2020.

“As we open up Africa with high quality regional infrastructure – especially rail, transnational highways, information and communications, air and maritime transport – Africa will witness a phenomenal boost in intra-Africa and global trade; the entrepreneurial spirit of small and large businesses, and millions of our young people, will be unleashed,” AfDB’s President Akinwumi Adesina said during his inauguration in September 2015.

PIDA Week is expected to create synergy between different PIDA-related activities held earlier such as the meetings of the Steering Committee, the Council for Infrastructure Development (CID), the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa (ICA), the NEPAD Infrastructure Project Preparation Facility (IPPF), and the Continental Business Network meeting.

The event will help to formulate measures that need to be addressed by African Heads of State and Government, including policy decisions necessary for tackling barriers hindering infrastructure development. It will also discuss private sector contributions to project implementation. 

PIDA Week will include panel discussions on gender and inclusive infrastructure development; PIDA’s role in the realization of Agenda 2063; a high-level dialogue on the effects of job creation on infrastructure development; and a roundtable with partners on PIDA’s Service Delivery Mechanism (SDM), among other events.

Approximately 150 participants are expected at the event, including infrastructure commissioners from the African Union, infrastructure experts from development institutions, regional economic communities, the United Nations, and the private sector.