Samia dedicates Africa Road Builders award to Magufuli

Dar es Salaam. President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Wednesday May 25, received her Africa Road Builders–Babacar Ndiaye Trophy, during the African Development Bank (AfDB) Annual Meeting in Accra, Ghana.

Speaking at the event, President Samia said she had received the award with mixed feelings because she was sure that the short time she has been in power isn't enough to have made her the winner.

She explained that the construction of infrastructure requires time; from feasibility studies to finding funds for the projects - a herculean task to achieve within a year.

"Projects take many years, it is a continuous process. From the first to the fifth phase government, a lot was done including expanding the road network and connecting various parts of the country in the fourth phase regime led by Jakaya Kikwete,” she said.
“But in these efforts, one person has always been there and this is the late John Pombe Magufuli, my predecessor, who served in the third and fourth phase governments as Minister of Works and Transport before becoming the President to continue such efforts, ” she said.

However, the Head of State, while receiving the award acknowledged that it is not a 'one person' effort, but if it were so, then "the most deserving of all Tanzanians is the late John Magufuli," she said.

Other leaders who have received the award in past years are; the President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, President of Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta with President Samia being the first female President to receive the award.

Sponsored by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Africa Road Builders Babacar Ndiaye Trophy is organized by Acturoutes, an information platform on infrastructure and roads in Africa, and the organisation Media for Infrastructure and Finance in Africa (MIFA), a network of African journalists specialising in road infrastructure.