The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group is geared to support the reconstruction and rehabilitation of public infrastructure initiated by the government of Sierra Leone after the official declaration of the end of the country’s 11-year civil war in January 2004.

The board of directors of the African Development Fund (ADF), the concessional window of the AfDB Group, has approved a grant of UA2.79mn, equivalent to US$4.10mn to strengthen the country’s public finance and the energy sectors.

Sierra Leone witnessed a brutal war between 1990-2000 that displaced half of its population, disrupted the economy and destroyed the infrastructure including the public electricity supply system.

To rebuild the damaged infrastructure, the project will strengthen the productive capacity of the institutions involved in public financial management. It will also strengthen the capacity of the public sector to manage the national debt and to establish a countrywide tracking system to capture and reconcile data on all external loans and grant.

Furthermore, the project will rebuild the destroyed management, policy-making and implementation capacity of the Ministry of Energy and Power. The project also seeks to improve the performance of the AfDB portfolio in the country through the enhancement of the management capacity of the Project Implementation Units responsible for the on going projects.