The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group approved, on October 4, 2024 in Abidjan, a financing of 323.75 million US dollars to implement the Burundi-Rwanda Integrated Development Project (BRIDEP). This project aims to improve agricultural production, cross-border transport links and facilitate trade between the two neighboring East African countries

For its implementation, the African Development Fund, a concession window of the Bank Group, granted two loans to Rwanda: the first for $148.86 million from its own funds and the second for 13.32 billion Japanese yen from the Japan International Cooperation Agency. With regard to Burundi, the Fund donated $48.94 million, reinforced by another grant of $26.95 million from the Transition Support Facility. The Burundi component will also benefit from co-financing from the International Fund for Agricultural Development of approximately $50 million

The project takes a multi-sectoral approach that aims to address supply-side challenges in regional integration and trade through the transformation of the agricultural sector in order to boost production and productivity, thereby strengthening the capacity for the exchange of agricultural products between the two countries. These interventions will be complemented by improvements in transport connectivity through the modernization of a network of service and cross-border roads connecting production areas to cluster centers and markets. This road network plays an essential role in establishing links with the Central Corridor and the Northern Corridor, the most strategic transport corridors in the East African Community (EAC).

The Burundi component of the project, which focuses on agriculture, includes in particular the dissemination of proven technologies from the program called “Technologies for Agricultural Transformation in Africa” (TAAT) and the establishment of resilient production infrastructures in order to improve the productivity, production and resilience of farmers. priority values here. The aim is to facilitate access to seeds and to ensure the availability of fertilizers and pesticides for 24,000 hectares of managed land. The funding will also cover the creation of agro-industrial zones (agropoles) in Cibitoke and Karuzi

As for the Rwanda component, relating to the road component, it provides for the rehabilitation of cross-border roads to make them comply with bituminous pavement standards, i.e. 215 kilometers, including roads connecting Rwanda to Burundi, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda along the central corridors and north.

A sub-component of the project focuses on the construction of a one-stop border post at the Akanyaru Haut border, between Rwanda and Burundi, in order to strengthen trade between the two countries and within the EAC.