Browsing: AfDB

Covid-19 has hit small businesses hardest and around the world, many are either still struggling or they have already shut down almost two years after the pandemic started.

The pandemic has caused large-scale loss of life and severe human suffering globally and as the largest public health crisis in our time, the pandemic has also generated a major economic crisis. 2020 saw a halt in production in affected countries, a collapse in consumption and confidence, and stock exchanges responding negatively to heightened uncertainties.

In Africa, things are no different and despite the hit by the pandemic, a June 2021 African Development Bank (AfDB) White Paper, Entrepreneurship and Free Trade: Africa’s Catalysts for a New Era of Economic Prosperity, states that entrepreneurship must be at the heart of efforts to transform Africa’s economic prospects.

Read: Why Kenya’s small businesses are choking

The Covid-19 crisis has triggered shifts that open up …

The construction of the Lagos-Abidjan Highway has the capacity to unlock 85 per cent of trade within the ECOWAS sub-region according to the African Development Bank (AfDB).

The Highway which is 1,028-km project will span across different countries which includes Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria -and traverse the economic capitals of the five coastal countries, starting from Abidjan and ending in Lagos, while equally straddling eight border crossings.

Lamin Barrow the Director-General of AfDB who represented Akinwumi Adesina the AfDB President appearing on Tuesday as a panelist at a one-day webinar to showcase the investment opportunities from the Federal Government of Nigeria’s reforms and privatization activities, said that while the Federal Government had spearheaded various reforms in the banking sector that enhanced the resilience of the financial system, there was a need to stay the course in completing the bold reforms initiated to restructure the energy sector.

Nigeria’s …

Urging unity and action to accelerate nutrition targets amid the global Covid-19 pandemic, representatives of the African Development Bank (www.AfDB.org), the Aliko Dangote Foundation and Big Win Philanthropy renewed their commitment to end child stunting and other forms of malnutrition through the Banking on Nutrition Partnership (https://bit.ly/3wEhp4H).

The partners convened during a high-level panel discussion held on 8 July, organized by the African Development Bank. They shared lessons learned, experiences, achievements of the Banking on Nutrition Partnership since its inception five years ago. They also discussed its implementation within the African Development Bank and its Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Action Plan, as well as measures to encourage other organizations and development banks to integrate nutrition into their portfolios.

“The Bank is relentless in pursuing bold targets to unlock Africa’s human and economic potential. It is our aim to inspire other actors to recognize nutrition as central to that …

African Development Bank Group has approved two grants worth $83.6 million to boost cross-border trade in electricity between Ethiopia and Djibouti and to deepen integration in the Horn of Africa sub-region.

In a statement, the bank’s board said the funds comprise a $69.65 million grant to Ethiopia and a second grant of $13.93 million to Djibouti.

Both have been sourced from the African Development Fund, which is the African Development Bank’s concessional financing window.

The Ethiopia–Djibouti Second Power Interconnection project will entail the construction of nearly 300 km of interconnector line, 170 km of transmission lines, and new construction or renovation of substations in the two countries.

Commenting on the approval,  Bank’s Director of Power Systems Development Batchi Baldeh said the first interconnection line is reaching its power transfer capacity limit due to several developments in both countries, such as the industrial development in the eastern part of Ethiopia, the …

Noteworthy is that the depreciation of local currency causes an upward revaluation of a country’s debt and also makes debt service in the foreign currency more expensive.  

“This currency-mismatch exposure explains a significant portion of the deteriorating debt dynamics shown by the decomposition analysis. Covid–19 has caused recent sharp swings in currency valuations for many countries, especially oil-exporting economies. The outlook for the debt ratios in these countries is expected to worsen simply because of the depreciation of their currencies. This issue would be less severe for countries that rely more on the domestic capital market for borrowing and on concessional debt with low-interest rates,” notes the report. …

The AfDB notes that high commodity prices have played a role in seeing the African economy’s take off but not only so, macroeconomic policies and sustained reform have also helped improved the growth. Other key factors that have contributed to this growth include stronger governance and better conditions for private sector development.
A damper to the rallying growth of the African economy is conflict which remains a concern though incidences have declined which has reduced the contagion for neighbouring countries and boosting investor confidence in many regions. …

To achieve sustainable development in Africa through the blue economy, the relationship between trade and development cannot be overemphasized.
The UNCTAD notes that trade has been recognized as the engine for inclusive sustainable development and growth with maritime transport and its related activities being motors for trade facilitation.…

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 17 – The African Development Bank has announced new rounds of funding for Zambia and Egypt.

In Zambia, AfDB has approved a $1.4 million grant from the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program to reduce malnutrition among the Southern African nation’s most vulnerable households.

The grant will be directed into the Mitigating Impacts of Covid-19 on Household Food Security Project and is expected to create about 150 permanent skilled or semi-skilled positions and 40 part-time unskilled jobs in crop, livestock, and fisheries value chains.

AfDB says the project will also supply inputs for crops, livestock, and aquaculture enterprises to promote good agricultural practices and increase food production, as well as a capacity-building component.

Commenting on the Zambian funding, AfDB’s Director of Agriculture and Agro-industry Martin Fregene said increased food supply resulting from additional grant funds will lead to more jobs, improved quality of life, and reduction of …

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun14 – The African Development Bank (AfDB) has unveiled a US$463.9 million 5.5-year Kangaroo bond.

In a statement, AfDB says the transaction, which marks its return to the Australian dollar bond market, was led by Nomura and RBC Capital Markets.

The fixed income instrument, which is a foreign bond issued in the Australian market by non-Australian firms and is denominated in Australian currency, is the institution’s first benchmark Kangaroo since early 2018 and its first in the mid-curve since 2015.

It is also the largest AUD trade ever issued by the Bank.

More than 30 investors participated in the deal, with a total order book of more than A$775 million, leading to an upsize of the trade from the announced size of A$250-300 million to the final size of A$600 million.

These included a strong cohort of Australian investors, while fund managers were the major investor type.

African …

The government of Tanzania is working on a blue print to increase sell of the country’s agro-produce by setting up bonded warehouses in foreign markets in a bid to boost sells.

The bonded warehouses will for starters be piloted in China and Saudi Arabia and are expected to ease access to markets for agro-produce.

Well first things first. What is a bonded warehouse? These are building or other secured areas in which dutiable goods may be stored or even manufacturing without payment of duty.

Bonded warehouses provide specialized storage services such as deep freezers for perishables as well as bulk liquid storage. They also allow for commodity processing and make up an integral part of the global supply chain by giving the importer opportunity to bring in raw goods, process, package and then sell the final product all under one roof with no duty charged.

Further still, bonded warehouses may …