Tanzania has signed a $346.9 million loan with the African Development Bank (AfDB) to build new roads to help transform it into a regional trade and transport hub, the finance ministry said on Saturday. The East African nation wants to profit from its long coastline and upgrade its rickety railways and roads to serve growing economies in the land-locked heart of Africa.
"The project will improve transport infrastructure in Tanzania... and promote regional integration through improved transport services," Servacius Likwelile, permanent secretary of Tanzania's finance ministry said in a statement. The loan agreement was signed on Friday, it said.
Likwelile said part of the loan would be used to fund feasibility studies for rail and airport projects. Oil discoveries in Kenya and Uganda and gas finds in Tanzania have sent governments to undertake new infrastructure projects after decades of underinvestment.