The North South Corridor Programme is a Model Aid for Trade Programme that has enabled the Regional Economic Communities of COMESA, EAC and SADC, their Member States and the International Community to implement an economic corridor-based approach to reducing costs of cross-border trade in Sub-Saharan Africa. It seeks to enable producers and traders to be more competitive, thereby creating higher levels of economic growth, employment creation and reduce poverty. The project will also focus on taking the necessary steps to ensure that adequate power supply is made available to support the growing demand from industrial, commercial and domestic consumers.
The High Level Conference on the North South Corridor held in Lusaka on 6-7 April 2009 allowed the Chairpersons of COMESA, EAC and SADC Authorities to outline the critical underpinnings for rolling out the various projects and programmes that constitute the North South Corridor Model Aid for Trade Programme. The Conference also allowed the RECs and Member States to outline the bottlenecks to trade that need to be removed in a sequential manner, if trade costs are to be reduced.
