The Board of Directors of the African Development Fund (ADF), the concessional window of the AfDB Group, on 29 June, approved a USD 35-million loan to Rwanda. The amount will be disbursed under the country’s Livestock Infrastructure Support Programme (LISP), which will be implemented over four fiscal years, 2011 to 2015
The LISP is the Bank’s second sector budget support operation in Rwanda. It is aligned with the country’s 2008-2012 Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy.
The goal of the Programme is to create an enabling environment that will stimulate the development of a modern livestock industry in Rwanda through value addition and access to markets in order to encourage diversification of the economy, sustain growth, create jobs and alleviate poverty. Rwanda’s entire population, including small scale farmers and large-scale agro-industrialists, will benefit from the programme. Overall, the people’s wellbeing and living conditions will improve as a result of enhanced access to more reliable supply and marketing of improved quality livestock products at reduced cost.
The programme will also have considerable positive impact on the private sector, through: (i) substantial reduction in the cost of doing business in the agricultural sector; and, (ii) increased private sector investment in the livestock sub-sector.
The Bank has gained wide experience through its involvement in agriculture across the continent. The LSP is in line with the government’s reform programme and the Bank’s new agriculture sector strategy, which focuses on the provision of agriculture infrastructure and natural resources management. Agriculture is the most demand-driven and supply-side bottleneck in efforts to sustain private sector-led growth, job creation and poverty reduction in Africa.
