The African Development Bank allocated a 1.2 million Euros to provide training to help resource-rich countries improve their mining revenues.
The Bank’s Regional Development approved its first grant for the project on financial modelling for the extractive sector in December.
In a statement to CRN, the project will be implemented in Africa’s transitional countries from 2020 to 2022.
First beneficiaries include eight Guinea, Liberia, Niger, Mali, Madagascar, South Sudan, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe.
The project will train policymakers responsible for the extractive sector to realize greater returns from natural resource investments in their countries.
The Bank’s African Natural Resources Centre or ANRC will implement the pilot project in the eight beneficiary countries.
‘Africa’s transitional countries need to build state capacity to mobilise revenues from natural resource investments, to address reconstruction, infrastructure and socio-economic priorities’, said Vanessa Ushie, Manager of the Policy Analysis Division in the African Natural Resources Centre.
The official added that ‘the FIMES project will equip transitional countries with the right skills and knowledge to enhance domestic resource mobilisation for accelerated growth and sustainable development’.
She said ‘given the strategic importance of natural resource revenues for building peace, stability, and resilience in transitional settings, the project is timely for the Bank and the beneficiary countries.’
African Development Bank research shows that many African governments do not extensively use financial models to inform investment decisions, or monitor revenue flows from extractive industry concessions, leading to significant revenue losses.