WB approves new fund for infrastructure investments in Tanzanian cities

The World Bank announced on Tuesday that it has approved 130 million U.S. dollars in additional financing for infrastructure investments in seven cities in Tanzania.

The bank said in a statement that residents in the seven rapidly urbanizing cities in the East African nation will benefit from the funding to scale up infrastructure investments and promote growth.

The statement said the Tanzania Strategic Cities Project (TSCP) covering seven strategically important cities of Tanga, Arusha, Mwanza, Kigoma, Dodoma, Mbeya and Mtwara will enable them to keep up with the pace of rapid urbanization.

"Improving services in Tanzania's medium-sized cities is critical to support the government's industrialization goals," said Bella Bird, the World Bank Country Director for Tanzania, Malawi, Somalia and Burundi.

"These cities play a key role to strengthen broader regional development, to connect people with markets, and provide the foundation to promote the growth of industries across the country," she added.

With the objective of improving the quality of and access to basic urban services in participating local government authorities, the TSCP has been under implementation since September 2010, focusing on three components of core urban infrastructure and services, institutional strengthening and implementation support.

TSCP was initially financed by 175.5 million U.S. dollars, of which 163 million dollars was from the World Bank and 12.5 million dollars from Denmark.

The project first received additional financing in 2014 amounting to 50 million dollars from the World Bank and 6 million dollars from the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA). Endit