Major loans for Arusha-Holili highway

The road project connecting Arusha with Voi in Kenya has received two major loans totalling $232.5m from the African Development Bank (AfDB).

The loans constitute almost 90 per cent of the total project cost, with Tanzania getting $120 million and Kenya receiving over $113m.

The project is also financed jointly by the Kenyan and Tanzanian governments which are contributing $15.6m and $12.3m respectively. In addition the Africa Trade Fund has granted a $0.74m-grant to promote trade in Namanga just inside Tanzania’s border with Kenya.

Once completed on December 2018, the 158-km road will provide the infrastructure necessary to link Arusha with the Kenyan port of Mombasa, reducing the transport times as well as the cost of road haulage, and facilitating the growing trade within the East African Community.

Beginning in the Sakina district on the slopes of Mount Meru in northern Arusha, the four-lane 42-km Arusha Bypass will be linked to the Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA) after which it becomes a two-lane highway until reaching Voi in southern Kenya where it will link up with the Nairobi-Mombasa highway.