Nearly half of the projects funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Somalia have been put on a watchlist, amid corruption claims, exposing widespread delays that threaten to blunt their intended impact on the country’s fragile recovery.

Internal portfolio performance reports seen by The EastAfrican reveal that eight of the 22 AfDB-funded projects in the Horn of Africa nation are red-flagged, as are 14 of the 34 financing instruments to the country, with one under close watch.

The figures, which are yet to be officially published, reflect the bank’s internal assessment as of mid-2025. At about 42 percent of total, the proportion of projects on the watchlist is far past the bank’s corporate target of 25 percent.

Red-flagged projects are those that breach the lender’s commencement and implementation timelines due to challenges ranging from difficulties in hiring to sluggish procurement.

A red-flag on a project acts as a warning for project implementers to speed up activities and implementation of the project, and it comes with closer monitoring by the bank’s officials. Sometimes, such projects are cancelled if no corrective actions are implemented to speed up progress.

“I am yet to witness the level of corruption, abuse of office, and incompetence that currently pervades the project,” said a senior government officer who supervises one project. They requested anonymity for fear of reprisals.“The fundamental checks and controls, which are essential for the sound management of public resources, have been planned for further elimination in order to achieve narrow personal interests.”While the AfDB said that corruption and misconduct do not influence the “red-flagging” of projects, it maintained that it “has a strict policy against corruption, fraud, and all forms of misconduct, and deploys proactive measures, such as risk assessments, integrity due diligence, and training to prevent these practices from occurring in the first place.”It did not comment on whether its Integrity and Anti-Corruption Office (PIAC) is already investigating any corruption or misconduct cases linked to projects in Somalia, specifically the ones on the watchlist.

Among the red-flagged instruments, as of March, was the $5.4 million additional financing for the Build Resilience for Food and Nutrition Security (Brefons) programme, which was intended to run for three years from August 2022 to this December. The funding was to supplement the Brefons project, which kicked off in 2021, and is also red-flagged.

The latest progress report on the project reveals that as of July, only 4.57 percent of the committed amount had been disbursed.“Despite the long implementation startup delay, the planned project outcomes are likely to be delivered to achieve the intended project development objectives,” said the bank.

When this funding was approved in 2022, the East African region was facing its worst drought in over 40 years, displacing an estimated 1.4 million people in Somalia alone and pushing a further 3.4 million into food insecurity and malnutrition.

More than three years on, the affected Somalis have not yet reaped any benefits from the project.

The project under close watch is the Institutional Support for Economic Governance project, which was started in 2023 with the aim of strengthening domestic revenue mobilisation, public spending management, and accountability.

The majority of the projects are financed through the African Development Fund, the concessional lending arm of the bank.

An AfDB spokesperson told The EastAfrican in a statement that delays in the Somalia projects have resulted from a cocktail of factors, including “limited access to certain project sites and delayed payment processing. Capacity limitations in financial management, procurement, and safeguards are also significant.”“The high turnover of qualified staff, particularly in Mogadishu, and periodic weather-related hazards such as flooding restrict site access, further compounding these challenges,” said the spokesperson.

However, the bank is confident it will swing down to less than 25 percent by the end of the year.“The percentage of ‘red-flagged’ projects currently stand at 42 percent of the overall portfolio, down from 52 percent in June 2025, reflecting improvement through concerted efforts by the bank and the Federal Government of Somalia to ensure delivery and impact,” said the AfDB spokesperson.

Overall, the Eastern African portfolio is performing better than most regions.

In a statement, the AfDB spokesperson told The EastAfrican that its plan to improve its portfolio in Somalia hinges heavily on capacity building, training, and fiduciary clinics to strengthen capacity in procurement, financial management, and environmental and social safeguards.“Recognising Somalia’s fragility and transitional context, the AfDB places strong emphasis on improving implementation capacity and institutional resilience. All projects integrate capacity-building components, and the bank regularly conducts annual training workshops and fiduciary clinics,” the bank said.

Projects that remain red-flagged for a long-time risk being cancelled, and without the government's clear goodwill to resolve the implementation bottlenecks, the projects' intended impact may never be realised.

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