The African Development Bank will make some 76 billion escudos available to finance projects in Cape Verde’s private sector.

The announcement was made today by the new ADB coordinator for Cape Verde, Frédéric Korsaga, following a meeting with President Pedro Pires.

The package of nearly 1 billion US dollars, the equivalent of two annual State Budgets in Cape Verde, is considered high by Korsaga, considering the fact that the ADB only began investing in earnest in the Cape Verdean private sector in the past several years, according to news agency Inforpress.

“During this year we will break the record of interventions in this sector, and in 2008 we will continue with this perspective. Thus I invite the Cape Verdean private sector to identify priorities,” he announced.

The ADB administrator invited the Cape Verdean private sector to support the institution in identifying potential areas of intervention that could serve as a motor of development in the country.

Among the projects that could come to be supported by African Development Bank financing is the integrated energy project for the island of Santiago. The project aims to integrate the electricity networks throughout the entire island of Santiago and reinforce the production capacity at the Palmarejo power station in Praia.

In Korsaga’s opinion, this project will have a direct impact on the island’s population and will improve the country’s economic conditions. The project is evaluated at 4 billion escudos and will be financed by the Japanese Development Fund and the Cape Verdean government, in addition to the African Development Bank.

Source: A Semana