Agriculture is the most important business in the world,’ African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina tells students

AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

29-Jan-2020

African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina reminded students of the important role they have to play in the continent’s economic development, as he was conferred with an honorary doctorate in his homeland.

The Doctorate of Science was awarded by the Federal University of Agriculture in Abeokuta, Nigeria, on Tuesday, in honor of Adesina’s work in agriculture and food security across the continent.

Lauding the choice of Adesina as the institution’s 2020 awardee, the Chancellor, Edidem Ekpo Okon Abasi-Otu, described him as a global household name whose exploits in promoting value chain addition in agricultural produce have remained unparalleled.
In his acceptance speech, Adesina commended the Nigerian government’s efforts to promote agriculture and agribusiness in Nigeria.

“Agriculture is the most important profession and business in the world,” Adesina said.

The Bank head pledged to continue the work of transforming Nigeria’s agriculture sector.
“The size of food and agriculture in Africa will rise to $1 trillion by 2030. The population of Africa, now at 1.2 billion, will double to 2.5 billion by 2050. They all must eat. And only through food and agribusiness can this be achieved,” he added.

Adesina said the African Development Bank was spearheading efforts to feed Africa and was investing $25 billion over a ten-year period to transform the continent’s agriculture sector. What Africa does with food will determine the future of food, given that 65% of the arable land left to feed the world is here, Adesina said.
“I am delighted to see so many of our young people engaged in agriculture arising from the Youth Employment in Agriculture initiative launched when I was minister to get the youth into agriculture as a business.  From their innovations in the use of drones, food processing, packaging, transport and logistics and marketing, they are already unlocking the opportunities in agriculture,” he said. 

He urged agricultural universities to optimize their role in linking research, innovations and technologies to farmers and the food and agriculture industry.

“Africa’s youth must become leaders to help feed our world,” he advised.

Agriculture is the most important business in the world,’ African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina tells students

AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

29-Jan-2020

African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina reminded students of the important role they have to play in the continent’s economic development, as he was conferred with an honorary doctorate in his homeland.

The Doctorate of Science was awarded by the Federal University of Agriculture in Abeokuta, Nigeria, on Tuesday, in honor of Adesina’s work in agriculture and food security across the continent.

Lauding the choice of Adesina as the institution’s 2020 awardee, the Chancellor, Edidem Ekpo Okon Abasi-Otu, described him as a global household name whose exploits in promoting value chain addition in agricultural produce have remained unparalleled.
In his acceptance speech, Adesina commended the Nigerian government’s efforts to promote agriculture and agribusiness in Nigeria.

“Agriculture is the most important profession and business in the world,” Adesina said.

The Bank head pledged to continue the work of transforming Nigeria’s agriculture sector.
“The size of food and agriculture in Africa will rise to $1 trillion by 2030. The population of Africa, now at 1.2 billion, will double to 2.5 billion by 2050. They all must eat. And only through food and agribusiness can this be achieved,” he added.

Adesina said the African Development Bank was spearheading efforts to feed Africa and was investing $25 billion over a ten-year period to transform the continent’s agriculture sector. What Africa does with food will determine the future of food, given that 65% of the arable land left to feed the world is here, Adesina said.
“I am delighted to see so many of our young people engaged in agriculture arising from the Youth Employment in Agriculture initiative launched when I was minister to get the youth into agriculture as a business.  From their innovations in the use of drones, food processing, packaging, transport and logistics and marketing, they are already unlocking the opportunities in agriculture,” he said. 

He urged agricultural universities to optimize their role in linking research, innovations and technologies to farmers and the food and agriculture industry.

“Africa’s youth must become leaders to help feed our world,” he advised.

Agriculture is the most important business in the world,’ African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina tells students

AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

29-Jan-2020

African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina reminded students of the important role they have to play in the continent’s economic development, as he was conferred with an honorary doctorate in his homeland.

The Doctorate of Science was awarded by the Federal University of Agriculture in Abeokuta, Nigeria, on Tuesday, in honor of Adesina’s work in agriculture and food security across the continent.

Lauding the choice of Adesina as the institution’s 2020 awardee, the Chancellor, Edidem Ekpo Okon Abasi-Otu, described him as a global household name whose exploits in promoting value chain addition in agricultural produce have remained unparalleled.
In his acceptance speech, Adesina commended the Nigerian government’s efforts to promote agriculture and agribusiness in Nigeria.

“Agriculture is the most important profession and business in the world,” Adesina said.

The Bank head pledged to continue the work of transforming Nigeria’s agriculture sector.
“The size of food and agriculture in Africa will rise to $1 trillion by 2030. The population of Africa, now at 1.2 billion, will double to 2.5 billion by 2050. They all must eat. And only through food and agribusiness can this be achieved,” he added.

Adesina said the African Development Bank was spearheading efforts to feed Africa and was investing $25 billion over a ten-year period to transform the continent’s agriculture sector. What Africa does with food will determine the future of food, given that 65% of the arable land left to feed the world is here, Adesina said.
“I am delighted to see so many of our young people engaged in agriculture arising from the Youth Employment in Agriculture initiative launched when I was minister to get the youth into agriculture as a business.  From their innovations in the use of drones, food processing, packaging, transport and logistics and marketing, they are already unlocking the opportunities in agriculture,” he said. 

He urged agricultural universities to optimize their role in linking research, innovations and technologies to farmers and the food and agriculture industry.

“Africa’s youth must become leaders to help feed our world,” he advised.

Africa Fertilizer Financing Mechanism Governing Council calls for more investments in Africa’s fertilizer value chain

AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

28-Jan-2020

The Africa Fertilizer Financing Mechanism’s Governing Council closed its eighth meeting with a call for increased investment to boost agricultural yields and build the industry across the continent.

The Council met on 24 January at the Abidjan headquarters of the African Development Bank, which hosted the talks. The meeting was attended by  its 12 institutional members, who reviewed its 2019 activities and defined the body’s strategic direction for 2020.

“The Africa Fertilizer Financing Mechanism has now effectively started implementing its activities as its first agreements were signed in 2019 to foster the fertilizer market in Nigeria and Tanzania. New projects are being prepared for implementation in other countries,” said Marie Claire Kalihangabo, the AFFM’s coordinator.

The Governing Council commended the AFFM on its 2019 achievements and endorsed its second annual report, as well as its 2020 work program and budget. The meeting discussed ways to mobilize more resources to scale up its activities on the continent.

Participants said the organisation could significantly transform the fertilizer value chain in Africa and strongly recommended mainstreaming its projects into the lending program of the African Development Bank and other stakeholders, like Afreximbank, for increased impact.

Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko, the African Union Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture who also serves as Chairperson of the AFFM Governing Council, called on the AFFM to work closely with key stakeholders to implement the resource mobilization objectives. She also called on the AFFM to build strategic partnerships that will speed up the implementation of the Abuja Declaration objectives.

“Transforming the fertilizer value chain requires that governments, development organizations, the private sector, civil society and farmers come together to strategize on solutions that can appropriately address challenges the agriculture sector is currently facing in Africa,” the commissioner said.

Sacko also provided an update on the second Fertilizer Summit, scheduled to take place in 2021. The summit will bring together African leaders and other stakeholders to evaluate progress since the 2006 Abuja Declaration and chart the way forward.

The Bank considers the AFFM as an important mechanism to improve the availability and affordability of fertilizers at the smallholder farmer level. “Through its flexible structure, multiple financial instruments and in-house expertise, [the AFFM] can create long-term impact on the fertilizer value chain in Africa,” said Martin Fregene, Director of Agriculture and Agro-Industry at the African Development Bank.

The Council also committed to supporting the review of the AFFM strategy and resource mobilization plan, which will spur the organization’s activities in other countries.

About the Africa Fertilizer Financing Mechanism

The AFFM was established by the 2006 Abuja Declaration. Through this Declaration, African Union Member States committed to an initiative to improve agricultural productivity by providing financing required to boost fertilizer use in Africa to achieve the target of 50 kg of nutrients per hectare. The AFFM is managed by the African Development Bank to accelerate agriculture development within the context of the Africa Food Security Vision, the Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.

The United Kingdom reaffirms its commitment to Africa’s economic transformation

AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

Remains top donor to fund dedicated to low income and fragile countries in Africa

28-Jan-2020

The United Kingdom is the top donor to the African Development Fund (ADF), the Bank’s concessional lending arm for its next three-year cycle, ADF-15 (2020 – 2022), a position it has held for the last three replenishments.

ADF-15 will focus its operations around investing in quality and sustainable infrastructure aimed at strengthening regional integration and human, governance and institutional capacity development for increased decent job creation and inclusive growth. The next cycle will prioritise bold and transformative projects with the view to achieve ambitious development results. ADF-15 will address root causes of vulnerability by systematically applying a fragility lens in all its operations.

The UK is a long-standing strategic partner of the African Development Bank Group and its contribution to both the replenishment of the Fund and the capital increase of the Bank sends a strong signal of mutual trust.

This growing partnership between the Bank and the UK was consolidated by the Bank’s participation in the UK-Africa Investment Summit in London earlier this month, at which a new infrastructure financing partnership was announced between the Bank and the Department for International Development (DFID).

Already, the UK’s contribution to several Bank’s projects has impacted the lives of millions in Africa’s poorest nations.

For example, the UK has been a strong supporter of the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA), a multi-donor facility also funded by the governments of Denmark, the U.S., Italy, Norway and Spain. The fund supports the sustainable energy agenda in Africa through grants and concessional investment to facilitate the preparation of green baseload, green mini-grid and energy efficiency projects; equity investments to bridge the financing gap for small- and medium-scale renewable energy generation projects; and support to the public sector to improve the enabling environment for private investments in sustainable energy.

As the world faces global climate emergency, the Bank is looking to redouble its efforts to promote renewable energy across the continent and expects this transition will be a high priority during COP 26 which will be held in Glasgow in November -hosted with Italy.

Last August, the UK pledged £30 million for women’s economic empowerment through the Bank’s Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) initiative. AFAWA is a pan-African initiative, led by the Bank, that aims to close the gender credit gap for women in Africa.

“Without any doubt, DFID and the UK government’s investment in the African Development Bank pays off and delivers huge impacts in Africa,” Bank president Akinwumi Adesina said.

About the African Development Fund

The African Development Fund is the concessional window of the African Development Bank Group, supported by 31 contributing countries. It provides concessional funding to Africa’s most vulnerable countries by tackling the root causes of fragility, strengthening resilience and mainstreaming cross-cutting issues in alignment with donor’s development strategies. These include gender, infrastructure, climate change, governance, private sector development, and decent job creation. It is replenished every three years.

African Development Bank hosts talks with ICRC on making an impact through collaboration

AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

27-Jan-2020

The African Development Bank held talks with International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Vice-President Gilles Carbonnier at the Bank’s headquarters in Abidjan on furthering their shared development goals.

The main purpose of the meeting, held on 20 January, was to discuss collaboration between the institutions and share the progress made since the signing of a Bank-ICRC memorandum of understanding to explore partnership opportunities.

“It is mainly through operation and cooperation that we are going to learn exactly how best to work together to be more relevant, more impactful,” Carbonnier said.

The Bank-ICRC collaboration centers on working in areas of fragility in Africa, with special emphasis on building resilience, particularly among women and girls.

Representatives from the Bank’s Gender, Women and Civil Society Complex, the Bank’s Transitional States Coordination Office and the Bank’s Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery Complex were present. The talks were facilitated by Catherine Cudré-Mauroux, Bank Executive Director for Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg and Portugal.

Calling the Bank-ICRC partnership “a natural fit”, the Bank’s Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development, Dr. Jennifer Blanke, said: “There’s a recognition that if you look at humanitarian work that might be in the same region year after year, you cannot deal with that, without some development element, which we can bring in. From our perspective, there are a lot of places in Africa where we want to be working on development impact.”  

Another area of interest is investing in vulnerable women in the Sahel Region and North Africa.

“We know that we reach higher returns when investing in women. Studies demonstrate that women reinvest most of their income (up to 90%) in providing a social safety net for their families, with a ripple effect on health, education, nutrition and youth empowerment. Investments today will yield tomorrow’s returns,” said Vanessa Moungar, Director for the Bank’s Gender, Women and Civil Society Department.

Moungar’s department spearheads the Bank’s Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) initiative, which the Bank sees as a key component of improving women’s access to economic resources.

Participants also agreed to focus on internally displaced persons and their host communities.

“The idea is to scale up our work in the field,” said Patricia Danzi, ICRC Regional Director for Africa. “We want to be able to do more than what the Bank or ICRC would have done alone.”

The ICRC and the Bank say future discussions will address technical, legal, financial and field aspects, with an eye toward accelerating the partnership implementation.

In Chad, the African Development Bank quenches the thirst of residents with clean drinking water

AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

27-Jan-2020

Izerik Moussa Idriss is a plumber in Kélo, a city in southern Chad. Today, when he hops onto his moped, he can go about his work knowing that at the end of the day he won’t have the stress and fatigue of trekking long distances in search of drinking water.

“Seven years ago, it was hard for us to get drinking water. The water that was available was dirty and put people at risk of water-borne diseases,” said Izerik. “Today, things are much better. We have lots of taps and water supply points pretty much all over the city. Everyone now has access to drinking water.”

Access to potable water has improved the quality of life of everyone in Kélo, a community that relies on agricultural activities. Augustine Feco, the general secretary of the Kélo Women’s Association, echoed Izerik’s words: “In the past, we used to travel long distances to get water. Some of us just used rain water. It was difficult for families to live. Now, things are better,” she said.

The Rural Drinking Water and Sanitation Programme (PAEPA) was launched in 2013, with funding of $27.4 million (80% of the project cost) from the African Development Fund, the concessional financing window of the African Development Bank Group.

Thanks to PAEPA, the level of access to drinking water in rural areas in southern Chad is now around 60%, with access to sanitation at 30%. Even better, the prevalence of water-borne diseases has fallen to 16% from 23% in 2011, as anticipated in the project’s evaluation report.

“Drinking polluted water was the cause of several diseases, particularly cholera and typhoid fever. Many children used to be sick on a regular basis because of the lack of drinking water at home,” explained Vincent Ngaradoum, a senior consultant at Kélo hospital. “We haven’t had any cases of cholera at the hospital since PAEPA was introduced. It’s a very positive outcome,” he added.

The project has resulted in the construction of a lot of drinking-water infrastructure. As well as in Kélo, facilities are now available in the towns of Pala, Laï, Fianga, Léré, Kyabé, Koumra and Moissala and also in some rural areas in the regions of Tandjilé and Mayo-Kebbi, in the east and west. They include 856 wells, 1,228 latrines, 408 septic tanks, almost 104,000 metres of water pipes and 318 soakaways. PAEPA now provides over a million people with drinking water and another 154,000 with sanitation services, said Chérif Djamal, the PAEPA coordinator.

The programme has created around 2,000 temporary and permanent jobs, and has helped build capacity among stakeholders so they can take over managing the infrastructure. The people who have benefited take the task extremely seriously.

“We are a women’s association and are committed to making people aware that they shouldn’t just throw their waste anywhere or pollute the environment,” said Augustine Feco of the Women’s Association. “We’ve been trained in sanitation thanks to the PAEPA project and we’re working to make sure Kélo stays clean, to avoid diseases. Life is better now.”

NSO Policy Interviews: KODEIJA DIALLO, Director of the Non-Sovereign Operations and Private Sector Support Department of the African Development Bank

AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

“Inclusive finance, through digitalization, can help integrate actors from the informal sector”

24-Jan-2020

The director of the Support Department for Non-Sovereign Operations and the Private Sector of the African Development Bank reviews the policy towards the private sector and talks about the so-called informal sector.

 

How could the Bank support poorly structured organizations?

Private sector policy has the merit of having more flexibility and flexibility in the size of the entry ticket and the care of the various types of actors in the private sector; whether they are looking for funding or sponsors looking for projects to finance in Africa. It also offers many possibilities in terms of instruments adapted to new players in the private sector, including those who are not structured, that is to say SMEs in general and entities belonging to microcredit or more or less from the informal sector. .

We deal with both large and small projects indirectly through impact investment funds and initiatives that we set up with support programs for SMEs. It should also be noted that a good number of credit lines granted to development banks and financial institutions are intended to finance SMEs.

Regarding the informal sector, and more particularly SMEs operating in the informal economy, access to finance is their biggest constraint. It should also be remembered that many factors contribute to the financial exclusion of these private sector actors. Indeed, these are actors who do not exist as organized structures with a financial balance sheet, a governance structure, a business strategy, etc. who could facilitate their support. However, there are microcredit projects that help these important players, which must be supported if we want to develop the private sector.

We must therefore support them, in particular through local partnerships. Inclusive finance through digitalization then offers a transformational solution to financial exclusion motivated by the informality of these private sector actors and has the potential to help access this segment of the informal sector, while facilitating their gradual integration. in the formal sector.

What about the new policy for private sector development?

It is part of a private sector development strategy which includes a framework for facilitating the development of this sector, the creation of social and economic infrastructures such as power plants, roads, health, l education as well as business creation and development through direct and indirect loans, etc. It also calls for more intervention in countries in transition and in sectors and segments with a strong multiplier development effect. Overall, the objective of this policy is to optimize our impact and increase our additionality in all our interventions in the private sector because our reason for being is the impact on development.

What is the Bank's strategy in this area, targeting countries in transition?

First of all, it should be recalled that the Bank has been very active through its three windows (ADB, ADF and FSN) and its various facilities such as the African Legal Support Facility to support countries in transition. In addition, to intensify its intervention and facilitate an effective implementation of its strategy towards countries in transition, the Bank created the Transition Support Facility with the dual objective of supplementing and relieving pressure on the use existing resources for low-income countries and actively support private sector development in countries in transition.

At the heart of the private sector development strategy in these countries is the need to improve the business environment, public governance, promote transparency and meet the urgent needs of the targeted countries. In this regard, the Bank will pursue closer alignment and complementarity between its sovereign and non-sovereign operations. The Bank's new non-sovereign operations policy is also a complementary tool which is part of this strategy and is applicable to all the regional member countries of the Bank.

However, with regard to countries in transition, it will be applied according to the nature of the fragility as assessed in each country and all the Bank's available instruments and in particular technical assistance will be used to implement this strategy and strengthen the different intervention approaches of the Bank, with regard to the development of the private sector in countries in transition.

The 3rd Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative Forum

AfDB NEW & EVENTS

Event location: 

Kigali, Rwanda

What:	The 3rd Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative Forum
When:	24 to 26 March 2020
Where:	Kigali, Rwanda

The Water Development and Sanitation Department of the African Development Bank cordially invites you to the 3rd Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative Forum, hosted by the Government of Rwanda from 24 to 26 March 2020.

The Forum will welcome the 54 regional member countries of the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative and is open to development partners, civil society organizations, the private sector and the wider African Rural Water and Sanitation Community.

The primary objective of the 3rd Forum of the initiative is to provide a learning and advocacy space to assess contributions made by various players and stakeholders in implementing the SDG6 water supply, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) targets. It also aims to strengthen collaboration, ownership, visibility and sustainability for rural WaSH in Africa.

The interactive Forum, comprising plenary sessions, working groups and field visits, will be an opportunity to learn from the experiences of its African member countries, and especially the host country, Rwanda.

Zimbabwe: African Development Bank Group approves grant for disaster risk management training

AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

23-Jan-2020

The Board of the African Development Fund (ADF) on Wednesday approved a $685,000 grant to strengthen Zimbabwe’s capacity to manage disaster risks, including droughts, floods and tropical cyclones, through the Bank’s Africa Disaster Risk Financing (ADRiFi) programme.

The grant will cover training for various national agencies involved in disaster risk management and financing and contingency planning as part of the ADRiFi project, designed to enhance the response of Regional Member Countries to climate disasters and promote innovative disaster risk finance instruments, such as disaster risk insurance.

 It will also benefit populations at risk of exposure to extreme drought events, particularly smallholder farmers and vulnerable rural communities. ADF is the concessionary lending arm of the African Development Bank Group.

In collaboration with the Bank, the African Risk Capacity, a specialized agency of the African Union, will provide in-kind contribution for trainings estimated at around $320,000. The project will run for two years, starting from March 2020.

Bank country manager for Zimbabwe, Damoni Kitabire, said extreme weather events such as prolonged dry spells, droughts, floods and tropical cyclones have affected agricultural production and disrupted livelihoods of rural Zimbabwe.

“Coupled with harsh economic challenges, these extreme weather events increase household vulnerability, food insecurity, chronic poverty and malnutrition across the country,” Kitabire told the Board.

The project demonstrates the Bank’s continued support to the country, while the government is working to reform the economy. The Bank is  committed to leveraging  support from other partners to successfully implement the project, Kitabire said.

In March last year, Zimbabwe, together with Mozambique and Malawi, was hit by Cyclone Idai, which caused damage to infrastructure and livelihoods in several rural communities. The drought, worsened by the unfavourable economic conditions in the country, is estimated to have exposed 5.5 million people in rural areas and about three million urban dwellers to extreme vulnerability and food insecurity in the first half of 2020.

The ADRiFi project complements other initiatives currently being implemented in the agriculture sector and the Bank’s post Idai rehabilitation and reconstruction project in Zimbabwe.  The country is also a beneficiary of a Euro 1.2 million grant from the Bank, allocated for training of some eight resource-rich African countries, to improve their mining revenues.

African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina opens trading on London Stock Exchange

AfDB NEWS & EVENTS 

“My ringing of the bell here today, marks the beginning of a new exciting, strategic, and impactful engagement.” – African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina

23-Jan-2020

Don Robert, Chairman of London Stock Exchange Group, welcomed the president of the African Development Bank to open markets for trading at London Stock Exchange on Wednesday 22 January.

The reception in London followed the African Development Bank’s Africa Investment Forum, held in November last year. The innovative market-place for accelerating investment into the continent is playing a valuable role in convening investors and corporates and removing the bottlenecks to investments and enabling a free flow of long-term capital.

The 2019 edition of the Forum, held in Johannesburg, South Africa, saw investor interest secured in deals valued at $40.1 billion. Mozambique featured strongly in the 2019 edition, with state oil and fuel company Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH), tabling the largest deal worth $24.6 billion.

Wrapping up a three-day visit to the UK, during which he attended the first UK-Africa Investment Summit, Bank President Akinwumi Adesina lauded the prospects of continued collaboration with London Stock Exchange Group. 

Don Robert, Chairman, LSEG, said: “Deep and sustainable capital markets are key to supporting African companies and infrastructure. We look forward to continuing to play our part in the development of these markets and attracting investment to Africa. As such, we’re delighted to continue our collaboration with the African Development Bank, which has now formally become a member of LSEG’s Africa Advisory Group.”

“My ringing of the bell here today marks the beginning of a new exciting, strategic, and impactful engagement between the African Development Bank and London Stock Exchange to jointly expand wealth creation in Africa and the UK,” Adesina said.

Looking ahead, the Bank chief said it would be working with LSEG’s Africa Advisory Group (LAAG) to attract a bigger share of the $5 trillion global Exchange Traded Fund Assets under management into African capital markets.

The Bank on Tuesday became a formal member of LAAG, an advocacy group which serves as a platform to enhance the development of African capital markets, boost trade and investment flows between the UK and Africa.

Adesina said the synthetic synchronization of £1 billion issued by the Bank had attracted global institutional investors to look at infrastructure in Africa. “We are excited about the recent listing of Kenya’s Acorn Holdings, the country’s first green bond in January 2020,” he added, then also touched on the Africa Investment Forum.

For Chinelo Anohu of the Africa Investment Forum, the visit to London Stock Exchange forms part of the Bank’s efforts to expand and deepen its relationships with foreign investors.

“With its unmatched growth and unparalleled investment opportunities, the next decade will, with no doubt, be Africa’s decade. Today’s ceremony signals the start of a new dawn for Africa, a continent that has embarked on an irreversible path to bring about lasting economic transformation,” she concluded.

“The city of London is the financial center of choice for Africa,” said Matthew Rycroft CBE, Permanent Secretary at the Department for International Development.

On the recently concluded UK-Africa Investment Summit, Rycroft said: “We are delighted with our partnership with the Bank and at the Summit, we made some extremely significant announcements…We announced commercial deals worth £6.5 billion and there are many more in the pipeline…But it is not just about sums of money; it is also about ensuring that our investments are sustainable and that they enable real sustained growth in the economies of Africa.”

One hundred and twelve African companies are listed on London Stock Exchange, with a market capitalization of £125 billion. In 2019, two African telecommunications companies raised £800 million in capital through IPOs in London.

Several distinguished guests were present at the ceremony, including Nikhil Rathi, CEO London Stock Exchange plc, and Suneel Bakhshi, Chair, LSEG International Advisory Groups.

Bank Group to host first 2020 Business Opportunity Seminar in March

AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

Event location: 

Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

What:	Business Opportunity Seminar
When:	11-12 March 2020, 8:00 am-5:00 pm each day
Where:	African Development Bank - CCIA Building, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

The African Development Bank will host its first 2020 Business Opportunity Seminar (BOS) in March for consultants, producers and suppliers from member countries looking to provide goods and services to the Bank Group projects in Africa.

The BOS, to be held at the Bank’s headquarters in Abidjan, offers a one-stop platform to deepen participants’ understanding of the Bank’s strategy and procurement processes. It will also allow closer links between the Bank Group and the Private Sector.

The forum is expected to increase the pool of competent suppliers for the Bank’s projects, contributing to the efficient implementation and success of the Group’s development initiatives.

Since 2017, the African Development Bank Group has organized two Business Opportunity Seminars each year - one at headquarters and one in a regional office. 

Ride the wave of the African Continental Free Trade Area, African Development Bank president Adesina Urges UK investors

AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

21-Jan-2020

Africa is on the cusp of unmatched economic transformation, and the UK must engage in a “partnership of change,” African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina said Tuesday in a keynote address at a UK Parliamentary Symposium. “The Africa of the 21st century is very different. The Africa of the 21st century is new and more confident,” he said.

The Symposium was co-organized by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Africa with the Royal African Society, Oxford Brookes University, and the Trade Justice Network under the theme UK-Africa Trade and Brexit. 

The Bank’s chief argued that Africa and the UK should be significant trading partners. “The reality, however, is that UK’s trade with Africa is trending downwards. From a $49 billion peak in 2012, trade decreased to $30.6 billion in 2018,” he noted. 

The decline in UK trade and investment in Africa is against a backdrop of projected business-to-business and consumer-to-consumer expenditures of $5.6 trillion by 2020, and a food and agriculture market worth $1 trillion by 2030.

“The fact that we are having this conversation in the UK Parliament is a great start. The convening of this Summit by Prime Minister Boris Johnson is an even greater start,” he acknowledged.

President Adesina used his engagement at the House of Commons to share Africa’s investment opportunities, “which speak for themselves.” Trading under the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, which represents a market of more than 1.3 billion people and a gross domestic product of $2.5 trillion, and is the world’s largest free trade area since establishment of the World Trade Organization, starts in July. 

Speaking earlier in the morning at the UK-Africa Investment Summit Sustainable Infrastructure Forum, the Bank’s chief said: “Investing in quality and sustainable infrastructure can spur Africa’s economic transformation.”

The Forum, organized by the Department of International Development (DFID) and Her Majesty’s Trade Commissioner for Africa, seeks to facilitate new investment and commercial opportunities for the UK and promote quality infrastructure to deliver better services to African citizens. 

The Bank has been a forerunner in the race to rapidly close the continent’s infrastructure gap, which Adesina suggested be renamed “Africa’s infrastructure demand opportunity.” Investors who tapped early into information and communications technology infrastructure in Africa have seen those investments become game changers for Africa, he noted. 

“Just under two decades ago, Africa had fewer telephones than Manhattan in New York. Today, Africa has over 440 million cell phone subscribers. Returns on digital infrastructure are very high as the continent expands broadband infrastructure to boost connectivity and improve services,” Adesina said.

The African Development Bank has been a major investor in infrastructure development in the electricity, transport, and water sectors across Africa. Cumulative Bank funding for infrastructure on the continent rose by 22% from $66.9 billion in 2016 to $81.6 billion in 2017. During the same period, the value of infrastructure projects with private sector participation has increased from $3.6 billion to $5.2 billion. 

To meet Africa’s unmet infrastructure needs, project preparation is critical, the Forum heard.

The Bank has established several project preparation facilities to address the lack of bankable projects and ensure a robust pipeline of projects. These facilities collectively provide $30-50 million annually in support for project preparation. 

The African Development Bank and DFID are collaborating to explore how to better support fragile states, which are facing huge financing needs. DFID has been the Bank’s key strategic partner since it joined the Bank group in 1983. And its “strong and consistent” support for the African Development Fund has helped the development of low-income states, especially the fragile states. 

Instruments, such as the Private Sector Credit Enhancement Facility, a credit-risk participation vehicle from the African Development Fund, (ADF)’s concessional window to support Non-Sovereign Operations in low-income countries, are showing tremendous results. 

With $500 million in credit guarantees, provided through ADF, the Bank has leveraged $2.5 billion of financing into fragile states, with a zero default rate. 

“We are committed to quality infrastructure and ensuring that no one is left behind!” Adesina concluded. 

The Bank’s chief is on a three-day visit to the UK. On Monday, he joined African Heads of States at a reception at Buckingham Palace after taking part in a presidential panel at the UK-Africa Investment Summit convened by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

ACCF grants $4.7m to support projects in African countries

AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

21-Jan-2020

The Africa Climate Change Fund (ACCF) recently approved seven new project proposals amounting to around $4.7 million.

The approval of these projects increases ACCF’s overall portfolio to 15 projects. These projects demonstrate how the ACCF helps Regional Member Countries to finance climate-resilient, low-carbon development. They will expand the ACCF’s geographic reach and diversify its field of intervention. The projects align with the Bank’s Strategy 2013-2022 and Climate Change Action Plan 2016-2020. The projects are as follows:

Syntropic agriculture as strategy to foster resilience, climate adaptation and recovery of vulnerable communities living in degraded marine and coastal ecosystems in Mozambique: This project will improve the environmental resilience and economic sustainability of smallholder families in Zambezia Province using scaled-up "gender-oriented eco-governance productive model"; it will be implemented by ICEI, a non-profit organization and ORAM, a local NGO.

Building climate resilience through youth and women farmers: The project will contribute to building an inclusive and climate resilient ecosystem for food security and sustainable growth in Sudan, strengthening collective entrepreneurial capacity of farmer associations; it will be implemented by local NGO ZWD.

Removing barriers to climate finance access by local governments/municipalities: The project will remove barriers hindering local government’s access to international climate finance; it will be implemented by the Ministry of Territorial Governance, Development and Management of the Territory of Senegal, in conjunction with CSE.

Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility (LoCAL) - Benin and Lesotho: The project will scale up the United Nations Capital Development Fund’s LoCAL Mechanism which supports local governments to execute climate resilient development projects using performance-based grants. The project will be implemented by UNCDF.

Green energy for women and youth resilience in Uganda and Kenya: The project will support the transition to low carbon development and scale up access to climate finance by boosting the development of the Sustainable Energy Value Chain, focusing on women and youth engagement; it will be implemented by a consortium of CSOs led by AVSI Foundation and including Pamiga.

The Africa NDC Hub: Supporting NDCs Implementation in Africa:  The project will support African countries to accelerate access to climate finance and effective utilization of funds for the implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). It will support the pipeline development of eight project proposals, strengthening institutions in Namibia, Uganda, São Tomé and Príncipe and Cameroon. The project will be implemented by the African Development Bank.

Cocoa Livelihoods Resilience - enhancing the resilience of smallholder cocoa farmers in Cote d’Ivoire through piloting the Adaptation Benefits Mechanism (ABM): The project will introduce a set of sustainable climate-resilient agro-forestry measures to enhance resilience of cocoa farmers to climate shocks in Soubre and Sinfra districts. The project will be implemented by the African Development Bank in collaboration with ICRAF and partners and will pilot the ABM – an innovative mechanism for mobilization of public and private sector finance.