15 October 2013 – THE Africa Development Bank, AfDB, Group has approved a grant of $7.5 million to finance three Regional Economic Communities, RECs, in Africa.
The three targeted RECs are the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, Eastern African Community, and Southern Africa Development Community Tripartite Capacity Building Programme.
According to a statement issued in Lusaka at the weekend, the grant approved in Tunisia by the bank’s Board of Directors would be implemented from 2013 to 2016.
The proposed interventions are anchored on the bank’s strategy for 2013-2022 and would complement the implementation of the Regional Integration Strategy Papers for East and Southern Africa.
The programme would provide technical assistance to the three RECs and the 26 Tripartite Regional Member-Countries with a view of increasing intra-tripartite trade.
The statement says it would enhance the tripartite negotiation process, develop trade facilitation instruments and industrial cluster action plans in the Tripartite Free Trade Area.
*Judith Namutowe, Times of Zambia