$2bn project support deployed in Zambia
THE World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB) have a combined project support commitment in excess of US$2.0 billion covering various sectors in Zambia.
This commitment has been injected in various projects across all sectors of the economy in Zambia such as energy and manufacturing, says National Development Planning Minister, Alexander Chiteme.
Mr Chiteme said his ministry had continued in its effort to track progress on the implementation of various Government projects supported by the World Bank and the AfDB.
He said that this had been conducted through jointperformance review meetings held on a quarterly basis.
“Most of the reviewed projects were found to be on track while others require significant interventions to meet their intended development objectives.
“The Covid-19 pandemic was obviously one of the contributing factors to delays experienced by a number of projects; and remedial measures have already been developed to help follow-up on issues which have negatively affected the projects,” he said.
In terms of monitoring and evaluation, he said, the ministry this year managed to produce the 2019 annual performance review report and the mid-term review report covering the period 2017 to 2019 on the performance of the 7NDP.
Mr Chiteme said the two reports indicated progress had been recorded in the implementation of programmes and projects in the 7NDP, though at a slower pace.
He said during the last quarter of 2020, the ministry also undertook a spot monitoring exercise in all the 10 provinces and a total of 276 projects and programmes were checked covering 74 districts.
“For a good number of projects visited, remarkable progress has been made; while fewer projects experienced slow implementation due to low funding caused by reduced fiscal space,” Mr Chiteme said.