Washington, United States, 22 March – The World Bank is to provide Angola with a loan of US$81.7 million to fund public works and provide technical assistance to public and civil bodies and economic agents, the bank said in Washington Thursday.

The first component of the project aims to “finance the recuperation and construction of public works and the acquisition of essential goods in response to local development plans and via municipal concessions.”

In order to ensure improved operation of the infrastructures, the World Bank said in a statement, the project includes creation of operating and maintenance commissions.

The loan to Angola has a maturity of 20 years and a non-repayment period of 10 years.

The second component of the project is local economic development via improvement fo “capacities to create businesses and participate in the markets for selected groups of producers,” through technical assistance.

The beneficiaries of that assistance will be the municipalities in the preparation of the local development strategies, provinces, the Social Support Fund, groups of producers and business development service providers as well as promoters of micro-financing.

The project also aims to strengthen local public and private institutions in terms of their planning, management and supervision capacities for basic public services and cost management. (macauhub)