The African Development Bank Mission has expressed the Bank's commitment to supporting the Secretariat of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Leader of the AfDB Mission to the SADC Secretariat, Mr. Noel Kulemeka who is the Operations, Implementation and Support Manager at the Bank's Southern African Regional office in Pretoria, South Africa made the commitment on 17th January 2018 in Gaborone, Botswana, when the Mission paid a courtesy call on the SADC Executive Secretary, Her Excellency Dr. Stergomena Lawrence Tax, ahead of the technical meeting between the AfDB Mission and the SADC Secretariat.
Mr. Kulemeka said the technical meeting between the AfDB Mission and the SADC Secretariat will discuss the implementation of the Bank's support to specific request by the SADC Secretariat, specifically the Bank's support in the identification and categorization of priority bankable projects as contained in the SADC Regional Infrastructure Development Master Plan (RIDMP), operationalization of the SADC Regional Development Fund and development of SADC economic corridors aimed at supporting infrastructure projects to facilitate Regional Value Chains.
In her remarks, H.E Dr. Tax welcomed the Mission to the SADC Secretariat and commended the Bank for undertaking the Mission to operationalize the Bank's support in response to the request from the SADC Secretariat. She said the AfDB Mission is timely and comes following a series of meetings between SADC and AfDB over a period of three years and most recently, the meeting that the SADC Executive Secretary held with the President of the Bank, His Excellency Dr. Akinwumi Adesina on the sidelines of the Africa-EU meeting in Abdijan, Ivory Coast. H.E Dr. Tax indicated her confidence and optimism, that the Mission will come up with agreed areas that will be implemented expeditiously.
The meeting between the AfDB Mission and SADC Secretariat is expected to come up with a common understanding on areas and nature of assistance that the AfDB will provide to the SADC Secretariat, culminating into a framework, to be signed by two parties.
Gaborone, 17th January 2018
