The call was made at the 21st Annual General Meeting, held from 13 to 16 May 2024 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
Organised under the theme “Towards sustainable financing of Road Funds for better maintenance of the African road network”, the Abidjan annual meeting was attended by top-ranking officials, including the Prime Minister of Côte d’Ivoire, many members of the government, officials from regional and sub-regional organisations and technical and financial partners.
The meeting also provided an opportunity for the President of the African Road Maintenance Funds Association (ARMFA), Aubin ESSAÏE MOUSSA, to request the support and assistance of the President of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire in the process initiated with the African Union Commission (AUC), with a view to recognising ARMFA as a specialised agency in charge of road maintenance financing issues in Africa.
As far as the technical workshops are concerned, a panel of experts has been called upon to give further thought to issues such as the diversification of financing sources for the sustainability of Road Maintenance Funds in Africa, the strengthening of the financial autonomy of Road Funds in Africa, legal frameworks conducive to the sustainability of road maintenance, the impact of climate change on road infrastructure and financial viability.
With regard specifically to the internal functioning of ARMFA, items of interest were discussed, namely: the activity reports of the Executive Secretary and Executive Board, the presentations of the various focal groups, the implementation status of the resolutions resulting from the 20th Annual General Meeting held in Maputo in Mozambique and of the 2023-2027 action plan as well as the draft budget for the 2024 financial year.
ARMFA is a professional, apolitical and non-profit association of Road Maintenance Funds (RMFs) in Africa. It was founded on 18 December 2003 in Libreville, Gabon, and now has 35 members from French-, English- and Portuguese-speaking countries. Since its inception, ARMFA has enabled many of its member to migrate from first-generation funds to third-generation funds now specialising in investment operations.