The award, called Babacar Ndiaye Great Builder, recognizes African leaders who have invested in infrastructure development.
"For us, the award is yet another challenge: it is setting the bar at a certain level that we must now surpass, take other leaps and [reach] other heights", Victor Hugo Guilherme told Lusa, who received the award this Wednesday on behalf of the President, João Lourenço, at the end of the ceremony in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on the sidelines of the AfDB's annual meetings.
"Today, Angola is to be congratulated for this award, but we are not stopping here. We have challenging projects with multilateral institutions, such as the AfDB, especially in the Lobito Corridor, but we will present more", he said, pointing to "the southern corridor, which leaves the province of Namibe and goes to Namibia and Zambia".
In the energy sector, "with very high production, we will connect to the African grid: this is a contribution we will make", said the Minister of Planning, which also includes in the scope of regional cooperation (in the area of tourism and the environment) "the great Okavango project, with neighboring countries".
"Modesty aside, we will not only look after our people, but we will also be contributing to the development of Africa", he concluded.
The designation of the President of the Republic as the winner of the Africa Road Builders Award 2025 was due to the "construction of major transport infrastructures in Angola", namely the Lobito Corridor, a strategic regional rail link between Zambia, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the organization explained.
"The African Development Fund, the concessional lending window of the AfDB Group, has granted a grant of 8.14 million dollars for this integrative project, which will facilitate trade between the three countries", he announced.
The construction of the new Dr. Agostinho Neto international airport in Luanda, which will open in November 2023, the paving of two thousand kilometers of roads, the rehabilitation of another two thousand kilometers and the construction project for a light metro in Luanda "were the trump cards in favor of this choice", explained the Africa Road Builders selection committee.
The award was created in honor of Babacar Ndiaye (1936-2017), President of the African Development Bank Group from 1985 to 1995.
Since its launch in 2016, the award has been presented to the following heads of state: King Mohamed VI (Morocco), Edgar Lungu (Zambia), Alassane Ouattara (Ivory Coast), Ali Bongo Ondimba (Gabon), Macky Sall (Senegal) and Paul Kagamé (Rwanda), joint winners in 2017, Uhuru Kenyatta (Kenya), Adama Barrow (Gambia), Abdel Fattah al-Sissi (Egypt), Muhammadu Buhari (Nigeria), Samia Suluhu Hassan (Tanzania), Andry Rajoelina (Madagascar), Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (Equatorial Guinea) and Denis Sassou-Nguesso (Congo), joint winners in 2024.
