Africa’s economic blocs are mulling fresh plans to launch joint infrastructure projects.

Officials from regional organisations from Eastern and Southern Africa meeting in Nairobi last week under the auspices of the Inter Regional Coordinating Committee (IRCC) said infrastructure growth could only be achieved through leveraging and blending of pooled regional resources with those from international co-operating partners.

They called for the efforts by the recipient countries to improve their capacity to utilise the development funds.

“We want to harmonise our financial procedures to have easily co-ordinated systems for the utilisation of aid for trade in all sectors,” said Mahboub Maalim, executive secretary of Inter-Government Authority on Development (Igad).

“Civil servants heading Ministries of Finances in respective member countries will be responsible for coming up with harmonised financial procedures,” he added.

The EU has previously raised concerns that financial procedures in some of the recipient countries are not good enough to facilitate proper utilisation of aid leading to delays in releasing the money.

Harmonised financial procedures and joint regional projects are expected to overcome this challenge, by ensuring that all the aid money is released. The best practices on financial procedures will also be replicated.

Delegates from member countries are expected to come up with the financial procedures recommended after the conference that ended on Friday.

The implementation of the harmonised financial procedures will be overseen by the Inter Regional Co-ordinating Committee (IRCC), the joint secretariat formed by member countries to oversee implementation of joint projects.

The formation of a joint body to co-ordinate the utilisation of aid money for regional projects is also expected to attract more donors to this region because of improved utilisation of the aid money. Joint regional infrastructure projects are seen as one of the best option to increase regional integration.

Future of the region

The East African Community Secretary General Richard Sezibera said joint regional projects are the answer to the future of the region.

“We are here for innovative thinking to develop a co-operative approach, hinging on regional and national resources to address our common challenges, such as regional infrastructure,” he said.

He called for quick implementations of the recommendations that will be agreed on to enable the region make progress in utilisation of the aid money.

Mr Sezibera, who is also the current IRCC Chairperson, stressed the importance of discussing the future, not only with regards to joint operations, but also in regards to leveraging and blending.

“We are here for innovative thinking to develop a co-operative approach, hinging on regional and national resources to address our common challenges, such as regional infrastructure,” said Mr Sezibera.

The African Development Bank announced two weeks ago it planned to launch a Pan African Infrastructure bond to raise about $22 billion to solely finance Africa’s infrastructure development.

Mr Sezibera said intra-regional productive capacities and high value-added value chains have to be fostered to increase competition and returns.

The two-day meeting brought together CEOs of Regional Organisations from Eastern and Southern Africa and Senior Representatives from their Member States.

Created in 2001, IRCC brings together four African regional organisations, namely the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (Comesa), the East African Community (EAC), the Inter Governmental Authority on Development (Igad) and the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) alongside the European Union (EU) in order to enhance aid delivery to the regions under the European Development Fund (EDF).

By David Musyoka and Chrispinus Omar