Inadequate infrastructure remains a major obstacle towards Africa achieving its full economic growth potential. One of the reasons for this could be that 80 percent of infrastructure projects in Africa continue to fail at the feasibility and business-plan stage. Therefore, Africa continues to suffer from a huge infrastructure gap that delays the achievement of socio-economic growth. AUDA-NEPAD with GIZ support designed the Service Delivery Mechanism (SDM) which is system used by AUDA-NEPAD to advise African Union Member States during the early-stage of the project preparation for regional projects.

The SDM support and advised the East African Community (EAC) projects “Kisian-Busia, Kakira-Malaba Segments and additional Road Links project” to mobilize finance and help the project reach its bankability stage. The objective was to secure Project Preparation Facility (PPF) funding to conduct the following activities: (I) review and update the feasibility studies of the Kenyan segment and (II) develop feasibility studies for the Ugandan segment. 

The SDM conducted a thorough screening processes to support the project with a Project Concept Memorandum, SDM advisory service and a developed Project Concept Proposal. The project successfully received the NEPAD-IPPF financing for the feasibility study and was awarded a PIDA Quality Label (Stage 3), for excellence in project preparation during the early stage of the project life cycle. In short, the SDM moved this project a stage forward with an outlook of achieving impact of developing proper road network to guarantee economic development and prosperity in Kenya and Uganda.

The Multinational Kenya/Uganda Mombasa-Nairobi-Malaba-Kampala Road: Kisian-Busia, Kakira -Malaba l road links project will improve the road conditions through the rehabilitation and dualization of the following road segments: Kisian-Busia (104 km), Kisian-Kisumu in Kenya, and Kakira-Malaba (127km), Busitema-Busia (20km) in Uganda.

GIZ continued support to PIDA, a continental AU strategic framework to address infrastructure bottlenecks through cross-border infrastructure development in the areas of transport, energy, information, and communications technology (ICT) and transboundary water management (TWM). PIDA is aiming to address the lack of infrastructure which is an obstacle to growth and development, and results in a low level of intra-African trade and trade with other regions.

The Service Delivery Mechanism is explicitly aiming to change the narrative and improve the preparation of projects at an early stage of a project life cycle and shortening the time of project to reach financial close.