en.Wedoany.com Reported - The African Development Fund has approved a $59.78 million loan to rehabilitate a 78.8-kilometer road between Kara and Kabou along the Benin-Togo border, with $50.28 million allocated for the Togolese section and $9.5 million for the Beninese section.
The funds, approved on May 21, cover the first phase of the CU18 Corridor Transit Roads and Transport Facilitation Project. This project is co-financed by the African Development Fund, the Islamic Development Bank, the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), and the governments of Togo and Benin. Plans call for the construction of a two-way divided highway from Ouaké on the Benin border through Kémérida, Soundjina, Kara, Djamdé, to Kabou, with lanes 3.5 meters wide, and the section passing through the city of Kara will be widened to six lanes.
This corridor connects to the broader Lomé-Ouagadougou route, one of the priority trunk roads of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and WAEMU, and a lifeline for the landlocked countries of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. World Bank analysis indicates that the Ouagadougou-Lomé corridor is an artery for approximately 40% of goods entering Burkina Faso. The African Union estimates that only about 18% of Africa's total trade occurs within the continent, far below Europe's roughly 60%, while landlocked ECOWAS members such as Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger trade about 30% less on average than their coastal neighbors.
The project includes not only road reconstruction but also funding for socio-economic and educational infrastructure in communities along the corridor, logistics improvements, trade barrier reduction, and capacity building for women's groups and youth employment programs. Specific measures include reducing border delays and checkpoint clusters to address the high cost of cross-border goods transportation. Lamin Barrow, Director General of the African Development Bank for West Africa, stated that this vital corridor will help enhance economic competitiveness, accelerate the opening of inland areas in Benin and Togo, and consolidate sub-regional integration.
Development institutions in West Africa are promoting regional economic integration through such corridor networks. The ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development has already participated in rehabilitating major routes including Abidjan to Ouagadougou, Dakar to Bamako, Cotonou to Niamey, and Lomé to Ouagadougou. The Economic Commission for Africa estimates that if the African Continental Free Trade Area is fully implemented, it could increase intra-African trade by about 40%. The "Phase One" label also suggests further work along the CU18 corridor in the future.
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