A 10 million euro (FCFA 6.6bn) financing agreement will be signed on 4 July 2008 at Agence Française de Développement (AFD) headquarters during a visit by Mr. Pape DIOP, President of the Senate and Senator-Mayor of Dakar City, which he will represent, and AFD, represented by its Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Jean-Michel SEVERINO.

The AFD loan allocated to Dakar City will be earmarked for a public lighting program to improve public services in Dakar’s neighbourhoods and strengthen the technical and financial capacities of municipal teams.

The project will have an impact on the daily lives of some 70% of the capital’s inhabitants by improving their living conditions and increasing security for people and goods. A preliminary energy audit will allow the project to use energy-saving equipment. The project will gradually contribute to limiting the increase in the city’s energy consumption. It will also finance the installation of solar-powered equipment to supply health centers (including Abbas Ndiao hospital) and neighbourhood health posts and maternity centers. Finally, it will, via capacity building actions financed by the World Bank’s PPIAF (Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility), improve the city’s technical and financial management.

This operation is in line with AFD’s strategy to promote access for populations to basic services, optimize urban development, develop city infrastructure and equipment and strengthen the project ownership capacities of local authorities in terms of management and financing.

This sizeable financing constitutes one of AFD’s first direct loans to a West African capital with no State guarantee and will contribute to building knowledge in terms of Senegalese local authorities’ management methods. It is also part of a more global strategy to support the Senegalese State’s decentralization process.

The project opens the way for a sustainable partnership between the City of Dakar and AFD which was formalized on 11 December 2007 by a framework agreement[1] for the improvement of municipal management.

Agence Française de Développement (AFD) is a public establishment and has been working for over sixty years to combat poverty and foster the development of South countries within the framework of France’s official development assistance. AFD is active in the field in over 70 countries and Overseas France and finances and supports projects to improve living conditions for populations, support economic growth and protect the planet. Sub-Saharan Africa is a priority for AFD and benefits from 70% of its grants. In 2007 AFD devoted 3.5 billion euros of financing for actions in South countries and Overseas France. Thanks to these financings 5.8 million children went to school and 4 million people received water supply. Energy efficiency projects for the same year reduced CO² emissions by 2.7 million tons a year. www.afd.fr

[1] signed by the Mayor of Dakar and Mr. Jean-Michel DEBRAT, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of AFD.

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