NEWS
THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 2019
AfDB / Niger sign $128.8m financing pact for Kandadji project BY BONNY AMADI
T
he Republic of Niger and the African Development Bank on Tuesday signed a $128.8 million financing agreement to support the “Kandadji” project for the regeneration of ecosystems and the develop-ment of the Niger Valley (PA-KRESMIN). The “Kandadji” project implementation will take six years (2019-2025) and involves the completion of a multi-purpose dam that will create a real development hub Nigerien Minister of Planning Aïchatou Kane Boulama, who signed on behalf of Niger’s Government, expressed her gratitude to the Bank and praised the leadership shown by it in the process leading to the “Kandadji” signing. “We would like to acknowledge the Bank’s strong commitment to this very important project for the people of Niger. The signing of this agreement is a step towards its realisation, but also towards the restoration of Niger’s river ecosystem and the development of thousands of hectares of irrigated land of local communities, not only in the Tilabéry region, but all over the country”, said Boulama. The min-ister was accompanied by the deputy minister in charge of the Budget, Ahmat Jidoud. “It’s a 100-year-old dream that is finally becoming reality and we are happy to have contributed,” said Marie-Laure Akin-Olugbade, African Development Bank Director General for West Africa. She contin-ued, “we stand by you and we shall remain by your side”. The implementation of the “Kandadji” project will take six years (2019-2025) and involves the comple-tion of a multi-pur-
pose dam that will create a real development hub in the region of Tilabéry, one of the most vulnerable regions in Niger, with three million inhabitants. The Bank’s financing includes a $65.1 million loan, a $49.7 million grant from the African Development Fund (ADF) and a $14 million loan from the Transitional Support Facility (TSF). To integrate Africa, bring down the walls,” Adesina urges at 2019 African Development Bank Annual Meetings Open in Malabo
Adesina urged African governments to work toward the elimination of non-tariff barriers MALABO, Equatorial Guinea, June 12, 2019/ -- African leaders on Wednesday underscored the urgent need to fast-track the continent’s regional integration process in order to accelerate Africa’s economic transformation. The call was made at the opening ceremony of the Bank’s 2019 Annual Meetings, in Malabo, Equatori-al Guinea, with the theme: “Regional Integration for
Africa’s Economic Prosperity.” “Apart and divided, Africa is weakened. Together and united, Africa will be unstoppable,” the Bank’s President Akinwumi Adesina told delegates at the packed Sipopo Conference Center. Adesina urged African governments to work toward the elimination of non-tariff barriers. “Pulling down non-tariff barriers alone, will spur trade by at least 53%, and potentially double trade,” he said. The opening ceremony was presided over by the host nation’s
Akinwunmi Adeshina
Xraying challenges of financial transactions faced during holidays Continued from page 10
are expecting that the figure will double in 2019 because 2018’s figure doubled the figure recorded in 2017 and that was why we embarked on an upgrade of our systems. “A system glitch happened in course of trying to upgrade capacity and unfortunately for us, other players in value chain had issues around that period and that compounded the problem. We started noticing the issues around December. The failure rate, which was previously at 13 per cent climbed to around 16 per cent.” He explained that a failed PoS transaction could arise as a result of total Turn-Around-Time (TAT) for a PoS transaction cycle
from the time it was received to the time a response was sent back to the terminal. “This TAT, such as when the timeout had been configured at 15 seconds in agreement with banks and processors. However, delayed responses from Issuers after this timeout in recent times could cause authorized debits not to return to the terminal before the set TAT,” he explained. Shedding light on remedial measures taken by NIBSS to reduce the failure rate, Ajao said there had been adjustment of timeout to 20 seconds from 15 seconds since March 14, while further adjustment to 45 seconds was done on March 19. He said that any issuer with delayed responses beyond 45 seconds
would be disabled with immediate effect to isolate such a bank, adding that the process was ongoing. Besides, he stated: “Implementation of an in-memory database system on the Nigeria Central Switch (NCS) platform on March 18, 2019, to ensure super-fast responses at the center. All systems have been load-balanced for non-stop performance. Processors have been advised to ensure redundancy in their network links for efficient fail-over whenever there is a service failure by any network provider as well as to scale up on infrastructure.” Significantly, Ajao also said all service providers were expected to scale up on infrastructure
because, according to him, the strength of the ecosystem would always be equal to the weakest one. Clearly, however, the frustration felt by many bank customers who tried to use epayment channels last week, shows that the “remedial” measures introduced by NIBSS, have not solved the problem. As a top official in the banking industry argued last weekend, it is the CBN’s responsibility to ensure that it steps up the Shared Services programme, which is aimed at ensuring a drastic reduction in costs for DMBs, especially in the area of critical infrastructure such as power and information technology.
President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. Also in attendance were King Letsie III of Lesotho; President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo; and Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini, Prime Minister of eSwatini. High-level government officials from Rwanda, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, and Côte d’Ivoire were also present. In his opening speech, President Obiang Nguema Mbasogo recalled that Equatorial Guinea, once one of the poorest countries in the world, has since been radically transformed with one of the highest per capita incomes on the continent. “For me, development is not about per capita income, it is about expanding the opportunities for the people to live a more dignified life,” Obiang Nguema Mbasogo said. “Equatorial Guinea is open for business. We are committed to regional integration for shared prosper-ity. We count on the African Development Bank to help us achieve economic diversification and the consolidation of social equality.” Regional integration is one of the Bank’s strategic High 5 agendas to rapidly advance Africa’s economic transformation. In the past several years, the African Development Bank (www. AfDB.org) has invested over $13 billion in the central African region. “And for every dollar invested, the region has leveraged $36, an incredi-ble rate of return of 36 times,” Adesina noted. The Bank’s investments include the construction of the Central African fibre optic network that con-nects the population with faster and less expensive access to the Internet, and is boosting businesses and regional integration. In his remarks, Equatorial Guinea’s Finance Minister Cesar Mba Abogo said: “Progress is the realisation of utopia. This is a country of utopia in Africa, with independence and the ability to control our own destiny. It seemed impossible at first in the last century but it was done. Now our utopia is regional integration.” More than 2,000 participants are attending the Annual Meetings, a unique opportunity to share the Bank’s perspectives on the state of Africa’s economy. The meetings also provides updates on the Bank’s work and serves as a platform for the exchange of views on emerging issues shaping the future of the continent. The Prime Minister of Equatorial Guinea, the president of the Senate, members of governments, the diplomatic corps as well as the African Development Bank’s Governors, Executive Directors, and other dignitaries attended the opening ceremony.