The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a €17.7-million loan to support the second phase of Cabo Verde’s e-governance and public financial management reforms, the lender said on Monday.
The financing continues a programme launched last year to help the island nation expand its use of digital tools to boost economic growth, improve administrative efficiency and strengthen public finances.
“The aim of this budgetary support… is to stimulate economic growth through digitisation and private-sector competitiveness, while advancing e-governance reforms to modernise public administration and consolidate public finances,” said Abdoulaye Coulibaly, director of the Bank’s Governance and Economic Reforms Department.
The new phase of the programme will push ahead with digitisation initiatives intended to enhance private-sector competitiveness, including the rollout of e-Justice to digitalise court processes. Authorities will also launch a call for proposals to attract private operators to the country’s technology park, part of a “digital nomads” initiative aimed at drawing remote workers and high-growth tech firms.
A second set of measures will focus on modernising public administration and reinforcing fiscal sustainability. The government plans to publish an action plan to rationalise tax expenditures and include full estimates of annual tax expenditures in the 2026 budget to improve transparency.
The AfDB will also fund a Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) assessment in early 2026 through its Middle-Income Countries Grant facility.
Key beneficiaries of the programme include the Ministry of the Digital Economy, the Central Bank of Cabo Verde, the Institute for Gender Equality and Equity, the National Directorate of State Revenue and the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority.
