H.E Dr. Bandar Hajjar, the President of the Islamic Development Bank, and H.E Ilyas Moussa Dawaleh Minister of Economy and Finance in-charge of Industry and Planning, IsDB Governor for Djibouti, signed US$ 64.8 million agreement for financing the Djibouti Africa Regional Express- 1 Submarine Cable Project, and Health System Strengthening with Emphasis on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) Project.

In the signing ceremony, which took place at IsDB headquarters in Jeddah, Dr. Hajjar  thanked the government of Djibouti for their valued cooperation with IsDB, Stressing that the IsDB support to Djibouti will continue through identifying the comparative adfvantage of the national economy to figure out  areas for partnership between Djibouti and the bank

H.E the Governor for Djibouti expressed his sincere thanks and appreciation for the IsDB financing of the two projects and reviewed the  development of IsDB operations in the country. He mentioned the need for the Bank’s support in especially in building human capital, and the Zero Slams projects for offering affordable hoses by 2035, in addition to sponsoring donor’s roundtable to help support the country’s economy. The two parties agreed to jointly study All issue of cooperation raised during the meeting.

The objectives of the Djibouti Africa Regional Express- 1 Submarine Cable Project is to contribute to provide efficient and reliable Information & Communication Technology Services to make Djibouti a regional ICT hub by 2024 and to contribute to providing internet access to 60,000,000 subscribers in the region by 2024, thus enhancing revenue generation by the Government from the ICT sector from 7% (in 2018) to 12% of GDP by 2024.

The objectives of the Health System Strengthening with Emphasis on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) Project is to contribute towards strengthening the health system to meet the health care needs of the population, and improve access to quality health care services. It will also contribute towards achieving the National Health Development Plan (NHDP 2018-2022) of Djibouti which aims at enhancing access to quality preventive and curative health care services.

The IsDB has approved 67 operations for Djibouti including10 Special Assistance Operations for a total amount of US$ 317.81 million. The active portfolio comprises 11 projects with a commitment value US$ 165.14 million.