AfDB grants E.Africa 13.6m dollars

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a grant worth 13.6 million U.S. dollars to finance transport and trade in East Africa.

The AfDB said in a statement available on Friday that the grant would help enhance the efficiency of transport in the region as well as assist the improvement of the existing East African Customs Union.

"The project is expected to achieve significant reduction of total transit time through the two main transport corridors and improvement of the predictability of total transit and travel time along the region's main corridors," said the statement.

The two transport corridors connect Tanzania with Kenya and link Kenya with Uganda.

The region of East Africa has just been enlarged as the East African Community admitted Burundi and Rwanda as its new member states.

Now the five-nation East African Community covers an area of 1, 817,945 square kilometers and boasts of a combined population of 116.99 million people.

Source: Xinhua