Press Release

Cape Verde receives US$4.74 million loan from OPEC Fund to rehabilitate roads

131/2005 December 21, Vienna, Austria
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The OPEC Fund for International Development today signed a US$4.74 million loan agreement with the Republic of Cape Verde to help finance rehabilitation/upgrading of 125 km of roads. The scheme falls in line with government’s aim to boost economic development and reduce poverty.

Cape Verde is an archipelago of 10 islands located in the Atlantic Ocean some 500 km west of Senegal. Its road network totals approximately 1,350 km spread across the nine inhabited islands. Around two-thirds of the roads are basalt cobblestone, while the rest are surfaced with dirt or asphalt. Having been poorly maintained over the years, the network has deteriorated extensively and is susceptible to flooding during the rainy season. This situation has constrained livelihoods among farming and fishing communities that rely on roads for transporting goods to marketplaces and outlying villages.

Project activities will concentrate on eleven roads on the islands of Santiago, Maio, San Vincente, San Nicolau and Santo Antao. Works will be carried out according to the condition of each stretch. Some will be upgraded with paved/asphalted/improved cobblestone surface or reconstructed, while others will be widened. In addition, three bridges will be built and drainage structures installed where necessary. Institutional support will also be extended toward government’s road sector improvement program.

The facilitated network will enable the population to enjoy better access to schools, healthcare facilities and jobs. A number of employment opportunities will also arise throughout the project’s implementation.

This is the 19th loan made by the OPEC Fund to Cape Verde. Earlier loans consist of seven for balance of payments support, one for a commodity imports program and ten that helped finance projects in the transportation, education, energy, health, water supply and sewerage and telecommunications sectors. The country has also benefited from technical assistance grants and one emergency grant that helped alleviate food shortages.

Today’s agreement was signed in Vienna by HE Mr. Fernando Jorge Wahnon Ferreira, Ambassador of the Republic of Cape Verde in Belgium, and by HE Mr. Jamal Nasser Lootah, Chairman of the Governing Board of the OPEC Fund.