AfDB Allocates $76.37 Million to Modernize Somalia’s Roads and Enhance Horn of Africa Trade – Birr Metrics
The African Development Bank Group has approved an additional $76.37 million in funding for Somalia’s Road Infrastructure Programme. The goal is to upgrade domestic transport links and strengthen trade across the Horn of Africa corridor that connects Somalia, Djibouti, and Ethiopia.
The package comprises $49.16 million from the African Development Fund, the Bank’s concessional lending window, and $27.21 million from its Transition Support Facility, which assists countries affected by fragility and conflict.
The programme will upgrade two key corridors: a 15-kilometer section from Zeila to Asha Addo in Somaliland, and a 22-kilometer stretch from Beled Weyne to Kalabeyr in Hirshabelle State. The project includes bridges, new road sections, and trade facilitation measures designed to maximize local benefits.
Beyond paving roads, the initiative features community development activities such as drilling boreholes, refurbishing classrooms into skilled-trades centers, establishing markets and storage facilities, and rehabilitating health centers.
A core aim is to promote cross-border trade, support small traders, and modernize customs procedures. This includes a simplified trade regime between Somalia and Ethiopia for small-scale operators and an expansion of Somalia’s automated customs system.
The financing fits within AfDB’s wider regional connectivity program. Earlier in the month, the Bank approved $214.47 million for phase two of the South Sudan–Ethiopia–Djibouti Transport Corridor Project, a flagship effort to boost trade routes and economic integration across the Horn of Africa.
Mike Salawou, the Bank’s Director of Infrastructure and Urban Development, remarked that the expansion marks a shift from limited interventions to comprehensive road upgrades paired with social and trade infrastructure to maximize impact at local and regional levels.
