Browsing: African Development Bank (AfDB) Group

Over the course of the next six years, LEAF is expected to deploy financing options, credit enhancement instruments and technical assistance in partnership with the private sector; including local banks.

As we approach the 2030 deadline of the SDGs, we must unfortunately acknowledge the disturbing truth, we are far from meeting the goal’s sustainable growth targets. The latest Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 tracking report warns that close to 600 million Africans still lack access to electricity and this reality is only worsened by the Covid-19 crisis.

In his comments about the LEAF program, the Bank’s Vice President in charge of Power, Energy, Climate Change and Green Growth, Dr. Kevin Kariuki, notes: “The African Development Bank is delighted to partner with the Green Climate Fund on the Leveraging Energy Access Finance Framework, which will not only accelerate access to electricity based on decentralized renewable energy solutions, hence reducing the respective …

The President of the African Development Bank Group (www.AfDB.org), Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina, has received the Leadership Person of the Year award from the Leadership Newspaper Group in Nigeria. The award was given “in recognition of his impeccable public service record and extra-ordinary accomplishments in driving the growth and development of the African Development Bank Group.”

Senior Vice President, Leadership Group Limited, Azubuike Ishiekwene, said: “In the past five years during which Adesina has presided over the African Development Bank, conscious efforts have been made to re-dedicate the Bank to its core philosophy of ‘Building Today a Better Africa Tomorrow.’ Under the Light Up Africa Project, the African Development Bank has a 10-year plan to drastically reduce the number of Africans who lack access to electricity. Currently, 645 million people lack access to electricity in Africa and, so far, 18 million people have been provided with electricity in Morocco, Ivory …

The African Development Bank Group (www.AfDB.org) and the Government of Ethiopia have signed two separate grant agreements for new projects to boost youth employment and electricity trade between Ethiopia and Djibouti.

The grants fall under the Bank Group’s concessional lending window, the African Development Fund, and will go towards the Productivity Enhancement to Support Agro Industrial Parks and Youth Employment Project worth $47 million, and the $71 million Ethiopia-Djibouti Second Power Interconnection Project, which aims to boost electricity trade between Ethiopia and neighbouring Djibouti.

The industrial parks and youth project will see the development of irrigation and water management infrastructure around the Integrated Agro-Industrial Parks, offering opportunities for graduate “agri-preneurs” to establish agro-related, commercially viable businesses. The $102 million venture is being co-financed with the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA), with a $5.25 million contribution by the Ethiopian government.

Under the scheme, 12,607 ha of …

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group (www.AfDB.org) has approved a $20 million flexible loan to finance Seychelles’ Governance and Economic Reforms Support Program, expected to help drive the island nation’s macroeconomic stability and recovery from Covid-19 in the medium-term.

The government program aims to deepen reforms introduced through the Bank’s Covid-19 Crisis Response Budget Support Program, approved in June 2020 for $10 million. These reforms are expected to advance fiscal sustainability, improve the business environment and Seychelles’ climate change and environmental resilience. (https://www.colburnschool.edu/)

The Bank’s financing will complement funds from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in support of reforms that will benefit Seychelles’ private sector, dominated by small enterprises. By ensuring that such businesses stay afloat during these challenging times, the operation will positively impact women and the youth, while creating employment and equal opportunities.

Seychelles’ Minister of Finance, …

The African Development Fund (ADF) which is a concessional arm of the African Development Bank Group (AFDB) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) signed a loan agreement worth $668.1 million (73.6 billion Japanese yen) which will help finance Africa’s low-income countries affected by the pandemic.

The loan will help support the 15th replenishment of the African Development Fund (ADF-15) which was approved in December 2019 by ADF donor countries. JICA is extending the loan – the largest to ADF-15 on behalf of the Government of Japan. Japan has been the fifth-largest contributor to the ADF in cumulative terms.

African Development Bank Group President Dr Akinwumi A. Adesina and Kuramitsu Hideaki, Japanese Ambassador to Côte d’Ivoire signed an Exchange of Notes, while the loan agreement was signed by Fujino Kojiro, the JICA Chief Representative in Côte d’Ivoire and Swazi Tshabalala, Acting African Development Bank Group Senior Vice President, in her …