Ziguinchor, May 6 (APS) – The Ziguinchor region (south) achieved an overall disbursement rate of 12% as part of the Casamance Economic Development Project (PDEC), a performance considered low, according to the manager of the said project. at the World Bank, Mame Safiétou Djamil Guèye.
“It is important to emphasize that the three key components of the project benefit from overall funding of $38,450,486, or 85% of the total project cost. However, 17 months after its implementation, the overall disbursement rate of the project stands at 12%,” she lamented on Monday.
Dr Mame Safiétou Djamil Guèye was speaking on the sidelines of a workshop organized as part of the World Bank’s support mission for the execution of the PDEC.
The meeting took place in the presence of development actors, local elected officials and the representative of the Ministry of Urban Planning, Territorial Communities and Regional Planning, Pape Ngor Thiam.
Mame Safiétou Djamil Guèye judges that it is “crucial to redouble efforts to accelerate the implementation and effective disbursement of funds in order to maximize the impact of the project on the beneficiary populations”.
She informed that the PDEC has the possibility of benefiting from additional financing, which “is however subject to the demonstration of an absorption capacity of existing resources”.
“It is therefore essential to demonstrate efficiency and transparency in the management of allocated funds to mobilize additional financing and ensure the sustainability of the project,” insisted Mame Safietou Djamil.
She explained that this supervision mission is of capital importance for the PDEC, because it will make it possible to evaluate the progress made, identify the challenges encountered and define the corrective actions necessary to optimize the results of the project.
“The World Bank reaffirms its firm commitment to supporting the authorities in the success of the PDEC. We are convinced that this ambitious project will play a crucial role in the economic and social transformation of Casamance, by stimulating growth, job creation and improving the living conditions of the populations,” she continued.
“As of this date, we are seeing a disbursement rate of 12%. Given the ambitions that were displayed in the action plan, this rate is low,” also observed the director of decentralized cooperation, Pape Ngor Thiam.
“As part of the project, each local authority will execute a budget of 91.800 million FCFA. The project does not execute the budget, it is rather the local authority”, specified the coordinator of the PDEC, Youssouf Badji.
According to him, ”the local authority identifies needs with the populations. We are in a project where we are much more facilitator than implementer,” he added.
The idea behind this project “is to strengthen the capacities of local authorities, facilitate access to basic social services through improving mobility and allow populations to receive funding intended to support their activities” , he explained.
If ”the execution rate is satisfactory in the regions of Kolda and Sédhiou”, in Ziguinchor on the other hand, there is little movement,” confirmed the PDEC coordinator.
The Casamance economic development project supports 60 local authorities in the Ziguinchor, Kolda and Sédhiou regions.
MNF/ASG/ADL/MTN
 – Senegalese press agency){kind=link}