Dec 28, 2015 | News

The African Development Bank (ADB) has appointed a consortium led by Mott MacDonald as technical advisor for a scheme to study potential infrastructure projects.

The work is intended to support African stakeholders as they identify, assess and prioritise regional infrastructure projects on the continent. Mott MacDonald is working with fellow consultant Sofreco on the infrastructure project preparation facility (IPPF), which is part of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).

NEPAD-IPPF was established to prepare high quality energy, water, transport and communications infrastructure projects for investment and construction.

The African Union and NEPAD have achieved consensus among African states to focus their efforts on 51 transformational regional infrastructure programmes. These programmes guide the direction of the NEPAD-IPPF, which provides grants to African governments, regional economic communities and other regional institutions.

To date, it has leveraged over £30m in funding to prepare infrastructure projects worth £900m. Projects supported by NEPAD-IPPF include the rehabilitation and upgrading of the north-south corridor linking South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania, a 1500MW hydropower plant in Mozambique, a dedicated African satellite aerial navigation system and improved access from landlocked countries to sea ports.

Mott MacDonald's project director Wim Verheugt said: "Good quality infrastructure is vital to economic growth in any part of the world. NEPAD-IPPF is scaling up its activities to achieve rapid progress on high quality infrastructure that delivers strong economic return on investment."