The World Bank releases $535 million
The Malagasy government signed financing contracts with the World Bank on April 19 for a total amount of $534 million., half of which in the form of loans. As part of a project entitled “Connecting Madagascar for Inclusive Growth”, the donor of 400 million dollars intended to improve the road network in the west and south of the Big Island, regions that suffer from heavy infrastructural delays. 500 kilometers of national roads in track condition will thus be rehabilitated and paved, adjacent secondary roads will also be restored to open up rural areas.
A second envelope of credits from the World Bank concerns the field of public health. 135 million dollars will be injected to finance the continued fight against the Covid-19 pandemic and improve the level of services in basic health services.
Presidential promises kept at 12%
A Malagasy NGO, Ivory, published on April 20 the results of a “citizen barometer” aimed in particular at measuring the performance of the President of the Republic and his ability to keep his campaign promises. It appears that 12% of these promises have been completely kept by Andry Rajoelina since his election in 2018 and 40% of them are currently being implemented.. In parallel, Ivorary surveyed 1,104 voters to gather their opinions on the effectiveness of presidential and government action : the majority of responses are unfavorable to the outgoing president. Oddly enough, 53% of respondents believe that Andry Rajoelina “deserves to be re-elected”.
The extension of the Ambatolampy photovoltaic plant operational
The extension of the Ambatolampy photovoltaic plant entered production in March, announce its two operators, the French group Green Yellow and the Malagasy group Axian. Located 65 km south of Tananarive, the unit went from 20 to 40 megawatts peak capacity. Solar electricity is injected into the Jirama network, but also stored in a 5 megawatt-hour battery, called as needed. 17 million euros were invested in this operation by the two partners, who also put into service a few weeks ago a photovoltaic plant of 1,4 megawatt-peak in Morondava. This unit has the particularity of being coupled to diesel generators which take over from the panels at sunset in order to secure a largely failing electricity supply in this large city on the west coast..
The Big Island very dependent on imports
The consequences of the war in Iraq on the prices of raw materials are generating growing concern in Madagascar due to the country's dependence on imports, especially food. According to Customs statistics, the Big Island imported in 2021 a total of 1,324 million tonnes of food products, including more than 200,000 tonnes of rice, more than 70,000 tonnes of wheat, more than 120,000 tonnes of edible oil and around 150,000 tonnes of sugar.
Air traffic gradually resumes at Ivato
After two years of health crisis and virtual closure of Malagasy borders, air traffic gradually resumes at Ivato, Tananarive airport. According to the latest figures from the Ministry of Tourism, 3,658 passengers were counted in March, 2,053 in February and 2,789 in January. In December, period of family reunification for Malagasy people in the diaspora, 7,050 passengers had been registered. The majority of passengers in March were non-residents, mainly French, came for tourism (29%), a family visit (25%) or business (21%). A clearer recovery in traffic is expected in the second quarter of 2022 with the reopening of numerous regional and international lines and the gradual restart of the national company's activities., now called Madagascar Airlines and which does not yet have any wide-body aircraft.
