The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank has approved a $272.12 million loan to Tanzania for the construction of a new international airport in the capital Dodoma.

The funding package, approved on Wednesday, comprises a $198.6 million loan from the Bank,  $23.52 million from the African Development Fund (ADF) and $50 million in co-financing with the Africa Growing Together Fund (AGTF) — a co-financing facility of the People’s Republic of China managed by the Bank.

The new airport will be built in the district of Msalato, 12 kilometres from the capital.

The project involves the construction of high-capacity airport infrastructure to meet the expected growth in air transport from the city's new role as the administrative capital of Tanzania. Work will be carried out over four years and will include a passenger terminal, a runway, air navigation equipment. The project includes other related operational services such as a fuel distribution company, water supply systems, electrical power distribution substations and a fire-fighting service.

The new facility is expected to handle at least 50,000 aircrafts and a million passengers per year, most of which will be international. It will benefit and serve more than 200 million passengers in East Africa, as well as international trade networks, and especially business travellers and tourists.

“An expanded air transport network in Dodoma, together with the ongoing high-speed railway construction on the central corridor, are necessary infrastructure investments to help unlock and disperse spatial development in the countryside. This will strengthen the city’s potential as a strategic growth pole in keeping with Tanzania’ national development aspirations of fostering shared growth for all the regions,” said Amadou Oumarou, the Director of the Bank’s Infrastructure and Urban Development Department.

As of late November 2019, the African Development Bank portfolio in Tanzania comprised of 21 public and two private-sector operations, with a total commitment of approximately $2.1 billion. The transport sector alone accounts for 51% of project funding, followed by energy (16%), water and sanitation (12%), finance (6%), agriculture (6%), multisector interventions (5%) and social projects (4%).