The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (ADB) has approved a concessional loan of 88.2 billion Tanzanian shillings (70.56 million U.S. dollars) to Tanzania to support its poverty reduction efforts.

The bank loan is supposed to provide financial support to the country's 2006-2007 fiscal year budget so as to assist the Tanzanian government in implementing its strategy for growth and reduction of poverty as well as the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals, according to a press statement issued by the ADB office here and available on Wednesday.

The loan would also facilitate dialogues on development policies, it said, adding the loan would be provided by the ADB group that consists of 14 donors including such donor countries as Canada, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.

The ADB group started its operation in Tanzania in 1971 and has so far committed an accumulated financial support of 1,500 billion shillings (1.2 billion dollars) to 96 projects and programs in the east African country.

Source: Xinhua