An agreement to fund up to 400 million dinars a development project in the primary education sector was signed on Wednesday between Tunisia and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD).
The document was signed by the Minister of Development, Investment and International Cooperation, Zied Laadhari and AFESD Director-General and Board Chairman Abdellatif Youssef el-Hamad.
The project, whose financing will be in the form of a loan that will be repaid with an interest rate of 2.5%, involves the construction of 50 new schools and the extension of 2000 others.
It is also planned to restore 800 primary schools and provide school furniture and equipment to most schools.
Computers and digital equipment will also be offered to 500 elementary schools.
In his remarks, Zied Laadhari hailed the “exemplary” partnership between Tunisia and AFESD, saying the latter is one of the country’s main financial partners.
In this regard, he referred to its contribution to financing priority socio-economic development projects for Tunisia.
For his part, AFESD Director-General Abdellatif Youssef el-Hamad stressed the Fund’s readiness to provide the necessary support to Tunisia and to accompany it in its development projects.
He added that this project is likely to improve the sector and offer favorable conditions to students.
At this signing ceremony held at the ministry’s headquarters, a donation worth 2.4 million dinars was granted to Tunisia to finance a project study on the construction of a motorway linking Tunis to Kef.
Since 1974, AFESD has provided Tunisia 59 loans for 58 development projects amounting to 7,450 million dinars.
