The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) on Wednesday, September 30, 2015 approved combined loans and grants amounting to US $428.43 million to finance projects in energy, infrastructure, transport and water and sanitation in eight African countries – The Gambia, Ghana, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire.

The Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) approved on September 16 on the sidelines of the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) Energy Week a US $965,000 grant to support the preparation of turnkey run-of-river hydropower plant with an estimated electric capacity of 20 MW at Saltinho, Guinea-Bissau.

The African Legal Support Facility (ALSF) in the collaboration with the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development and the Uganda Chamber of Mines and Petroleum officially launched a five-day training programme on Monday for senior government officials and members of the private sector in Kampala.

Participating in the seminar are 30 senior representatives of State Ministries and other institutions involved in the negotiation of mining agreements. 

The African Development Bank and the Senegalese Ministry for Water Resources and Sanitation have fine-tuned their planning of a new US $54-million program to improve access to water and sanitation in the most challenging rural regions of the country. High on the agenda of priorities is the alignment with the just-launched UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDG number 6 pledges availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. 

With advances made in their social indicators, African countries to focus on implementing the next generation of development goals

Having made encouraging progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), African countries have the opportunity to use the newly launched Sustainable Development Goals to tackle remaining challenges and achieve a development breakthrough, according to a report released in New York on Monday.