The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) Fund for International Development has approved an additional $6-million in funding for the construction of the 25 km Liwonde–Naminga road, in south-eastern Malawi.

The $6-million approved for the $22.67-mil-lion project is part of an over $234-million financial package that the fund’s board of directors has approved for the development projects in over 50 countries.

“The [bulk] of the public-sector funding will cofinance transport-ation, energy, water supply and sanitation projects.

The Liwonde–Naminga road loan will be used to complete the upgrading of the road, which serves nearly two-million people,” says the fund.

The Malawi government con- tracted Arab contractor Kharafi & Sons to undertake the project, which was supposed to start on February 29, 2008, with completion scheduled for February 2009.

However, after preliminary works, which included bush clearing, earthworks and setting out of the centre line of the road, the contractor walked away in 2008 because the Malawi government, which is cofinancing the project with the Opec Fund, had failed to pay its share owing to the financial problems the country was experiencing at that time.

Malawi’s Roads Authority says the project’s implementation schedule has now been revised and government has agreed to pay the con-tractor about $7-million for idle time and for the work that was done prior to the suspension of activities on site.

“The contract duration will have to be revised because there is a lot more earthworks in the escarpment to be completed, and also because the project has been on suspension for some time,” says the authority.

Several road construction pro-jects were suspended in Malawi between 2008 and 2011 because of the financial problems that rocked the country after Malawi’s traditional donors, led by the International Monetary Fund, suspended budgetary support for the impoverished Southern African country, where donor funds account for up to 40% of the Budget.

The donors, who suspended aid because of a poor record on gover-nance and respect for the rule of law by the former administration of the late President Bingu wa Mutharika, have now reopened their aid taps, resulting in the resumption of a number of road projects.