The World Bank’s board of executive directors has approved a USD92.1 million International Development Association (IDA) grant to support the fifth phase of the Central African Backbone (CAB) program in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The next phase of the deployment seeks to link the DRC’s main economic clusters, both to each other, and to the regional and international fibre networks that are operational in neighbouring countries.
The financing will be used to support the rollout of missing fibre links in the country’s under-construction network – connecting populated, but geographically distant economic clusters such as Kinshasa in the west, Goma (east) and Lubumbashi (south). The project is expected to welcome private sector investment via a Public-Private Partnership (PPP).
