South Sudan - Regional Development Finance Institutions (African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI) and Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (TDB)) – Country Membership Programme

The present project aims to strengthen South Sudan's capacity by providing the financial resources necessary to join the Trade and Development Bank (TDB) and the Africa Trade Insurance Agency (ITA) to be able to mobilize a significant amount of foreign direct investment (FDI), while providing greater insurance coverage for the public and private sectors to support its economic recovery efforts. This contribution to South Sudan will help scale up the African Development Bank's interventions to support the country's recovery and combat some of the factors that contribute to the fragility of the economy. Indeed, the investment climate in South Sudan is not conducive, mainly due to insecurity, lack of infrastructure, lack of access to long-term, low-cost financing for the shortage of skilled labor compared to the rest of the region and poor corporate governance, which weighs on the public and private sectors. The duration of the proposed project is 15 months (April 2017-June 2018). It consists of the following two components: (i) TDB Membership; and ii) ITA membership. Thus, the expected results of this project include: (i) increased private sector participation in major projects through ITA support; and (ii) the development of intraregional trade and increased cross-border investment. In addition, South Sudan's membership of the ITA will support the creation of an integrated and enhanced Trade Finance (FC) and Private Investment Risk Underwriting Framework in the country by the ITA. Another expected result of the project is the strengthening of South Sudan's capacity to attract FDI, as the political and credit risk situation has improved.