N'DJAMENA, Chad, February 27, 2025/ -- The African Development Bank (www.AfDB.org) and the government of Chad have signed a grant agreement worth $44.9 million to finance the asphalting of the 49.5-kilometre Kyabé-Mayo section of the Kyabé-Singako road, including the construction of a 55-metre bridge.

The agreement was signed in N’Djamena on 19 February 2025 by Tahir Hamid Nguilin, Minister of State for Finance, Budget, Economy, Planning and International Cooperation, and Claude N’Kodia, the Bank’s Acting Representative in Chad. Several members of the Chadian government were also present, including the Minister for Infrastructure, Access-Improvement and Road Maintenance, Amir Idriss Kourda, and the Secretary of State for Finance and Budget, Ali Djadda Kampard. Also present was a delegation from the International Monetary Fund, led by its head of mission for Chad, Julien Reynaud,

The funding will support one of the Chadian government’s key development objectives through strategic infrastructure improvement.

“The [Moyen-Chari] region, including Kyabé, Singako and Am Timan, has strong economic potential. It is Chad’s main agricultural basin and livestock area, rich in fish resources. Fish are supplied from Moyen-Chari to a large part of the country's south and even to foreign markets,” stated Nguilin, also the Bank’s Governor for Chad.

The road project will open up southern and eastern regions of Chad, reduce vulnerability, and strengthen the resilience of local populations, especially women and young people. It will improve the transportation of goods and people between Kyabé and Singako by providing an all-weather road, facilitating the flow of agricultural and animal products from the rich areas of Moyen-Chari and Salamat to the consumer centers of Sarh, Moundou, N’Djamena and Abéché. It will also enhance accessibility to Moyen-Chari from neighboring Sudan.

The agreement paves the way for support from the Islamic Development Bank to finance the second section of the 205-kilometer Mayo-Singako-Am Timan at an estimated cost of $275.5 million.

“The African Development Bank is a strategic partner of Chad, particularly in the transport sector. The construction of the road section will reduce the overall cost of transport in Moyen-Chari [...] and improve the living conditions of local people thanks to easier access to health and education facilities and to the country’s main consumer centers,” said N’Kodia.

The Kyabé-Mayo section of the Kyabé-Singako road is one of the missing links in the N’Djamena-Moundou-Sarh-Kyabé-Am Timan-Abéché corridor and forms part of the priority structuring network that the Chadian government aims to develop to ensure nationwide coverage and permanent accessibility.

The African Development Bank Group remains a strategic financial partner for Chad, with its strategy paper focusing on two priority pillars: developing infrastructure to achieve strong and diversified economic growth and promoting good governance to increase the effectiveness of public action and the attractiveness of the economic environment.