A new road for Chad

A new road for Chad

A new road will open-up the southern and eastern regions of Chad by improving transport conditions.

Earlier this week the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) approved grants worth €44.16 million for the construction of a 50km road between Kyabé and Singako in Chad, one of the least developed countries in Africa.

This part of the road is known as the Kyabé-Mayo section. The project will include the construction of a 55m long bridge.

Funding vehicles

The funding comprises a grant of €3.2 million from the African Development Fund, the Bank Group’s concessional funding window and another grant of €40.96 million from the Transition Support Facility, a mechanism designed to provide additional concessional resources to countries facing situations of fragility and conflict.

The project will help open up the southern and eastern regions of Chad, and build resilience in target communities, especially for women and youth.

It will help improve transport conditions for goods and people between Kyabé and Singako by creating a road that will be passable throughout the year and facilitate the flow of agricultural and agropastoral products from the fertile areas of Moyen Chari and Salamat to the consumption centres of Sarh, Moundou, N’Djamena and Abéché. It will also open-up the region to neighbouring Sudan.

Reducing transport costs

As a landlocked country in Central Africa, Chad is a long distance from the sea, and the new road will help to reduce the very high transport costs along the major regional corridors.

The Kyabé-Mayo section of the road between Kyabé and Singako is one of the missing links in the N’Djamena-Moundou-Sarh-Kyabé-Am Timan-Abéché corridor and forms part of the critical priority network that the government of Chad wants to build to ensure permanent coverage and accessibility across the whole of the country.

The new road will help open up the country, provide better links to domestic and regional markets and strengthen the process of economic integration, particularly the effective implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

Implemented over 5-year period

The project will be implemented over a five-year period, from 2025 to 2029.

According to the Bank’s Director General for Central Africa, Serge N’Guessan, Chad has one of the least dense road networks in Africa.

“The road will help to reduce the impact of fragility and poverty in the area and support the emergence of agropastoral processing activities driven by the private sector and building on the connecting road infrastructure.

The area has several comparative advantages and for developing promising sectors and processing agriproducts like shea butter, groundnut, sesame and other crops.

The article was edited by Leon Louw founder of WhyAfrica and editor of the WhyAfrica magazine.

A new road for Chad