Niger - Competitiveness & Growth Support

closed

The objective of the Competitiveness and Growth Support Project is to improve selected aspects of Niger's business environment, to support the development of the meat industry and to increase local business participation in the extractive industry sector. There are four components to the project, the first component being investment climate, investment promotion and small and medium enterprise (SME) support for identified value chains. The objective of this component is to help (i) improve the business environment; (ii) provide Business Development Services (BDS) to support enterprise development primarily in the identified value chains supported by the project (mining and meat) through a matching grants program; and (iii) support the Government effort for investment and export promotion. The second component is the support to selected value chains. This component includes two sub-components: support to the extractive industries value chain, and support to the meat and butchery value chain. The third component is the policy reforms, infrastructure and services to harness the relationship between Niger and Nigeria through the Kano, Katsina, and Maradi (K2M) corridor. The objective of this component is to help foster trade and regional integration with Nigeria and to attract private investment in the (K2M) corridor. The project will help develop the K2M corridor by financing required institutional reforms; infrastructure and services in the corridor in Maradi close to the Nigeria border. Finally, the fourth component is the project management.