Nigeria: African Development Bank Board approves $134 million loan to boost local food production
The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group on Friday approved a $134 million loan for the National Agriculture Growth Scheme – Agro Pocket program in Nigeria to scale up food production and boost livelihood resilience.
The program will support fast-tracking of the implementation of key policy and institutional reforms and boost private sector participation in agriculture. This will help increase cereals and oil grains production by 7 million tonnes to 35 million tonnes. It will also increase average cereal yields from 1.42 tonnes to 2 tonnes per hectare during the September 2022-December 2023 implementation period.
The program aligns with the Bank’s African Emergency Food Production Facility and will support Nigeria’s efforts to mitigate the impacts of the war in Ukraine. Food prices have been rising rapidly due to higher volatility caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, aggravated by the war.
African Development Bank approves $175 million Regional Trade Finance Funded Risk Participation Agreement facility for Eastern and Southern African Trade & Development Bank
The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group has approved a $175 million Trade Finance Funded Risk Participation Agreement facility between the African Development Bank and Trade & Development Bank (TDB). The agreement is expected to boost intra-Africa trade, promote regional integration, and contribute to the reduction of the trade finance gap in Africa.
The Bank will provide liquidity of up to 50% (the other 50% to be matched by TDB), to Issuing Banks on a risk share basis, to support trade activities of local corporates and SMEs in member countries of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). Together, the two institutions will provide a ticket size of $350 million to support trade transactions. This is a strategic effort by the African Development Bank to support the Africa Continental Free Trade Area’s agenda of reshaping markets and economies across the region by helping to boost output in the services, trade, manufacturing, and natural resources sectors.
African Development Bank Group approves Euro 50 million Trade Finance Risk Participation Partnership with Societe Generale to support local banks and SMEs in Africa
The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group on Wednesday 13 July approved a €50 million unfunded risk-sharing facility partnership with Societe Generale to further support trade finance activities across Africa. The facility will contribute to reducing Africa’s trade finance gap by enhancing Societe Generale’s risk bearing capacity by up to fifty percent, enabling it to provide increased confirmation limits to local issuing banks on the continent.
The parties will share the default risk on a portfolio of eligible trade transactions originated by African Issuing Banks and indemnified by Societe Generale. Beneficiaries of this facility will be issuing banks in Africa who will benefit from additional support from international banks to grow their trade finance business, as well as small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and domestic firms who rely on these issuing banks to fulfill their trade finance commitments.
Stefan Nalletamby, Director for Financial Sector Development at the African Development Bank, said the partnership with Societe Generale will help support African small businesses and local corporates involved in international trade.
Guinea: $66 million from the African Development Bank to extend access to electricity
On 14 July 2022 in Abidjan, the Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group approved a $66.39 million support package for Guinea. The funding is intended to help it increase access to electricity.
It consists of a $4.17 million grant and a $9.37 million loan from the African Development Fund (the concessional arm of the African Development Bank Group) and a $24.13 million grant and a $28.72 million loan from the Transition Support Facility. The project is co-financed by the Islamic Development Bank, the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa, hosted by the Bank, American cooperation, in particular USAID, through the Africa Energy Program, and the Guinean government.
Kenya: African Development Bank approves a €63 million loan to increase cereals and oil seed production
The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group has approved a €63 million loan to Kenya to significantly boost cereals and oil seeds production by over 1.5 million metric tonnes over the next two years. The production increase will help bolster national food security and economic resilience.
The loan is part of the African Development Bank’s $1.5 billion African Emergency Food Production Facility, an Africa-wide initiative to avert a looming food crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.
The loan will support the country’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperatives (MoALFC). It will enable the government to promptly provide affordable fertilizer and seeds to farmers ahead of the October-December 2022 short rains and into the 2022/2023 long rains crop production season.
Kenya: African Development Bank approves $150 million for Nairobi-Nakuru-Mau Summit Highway Project
The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group today approved financing of $150 million to Kenya to support a major highway development project under the government’s First Mover Public-Private Partnership (PPP) programme.
The project will see the development of the A8 and A8 South highways. The existing 175km A8 road from Rironi to Mau Summit will be transformed into a four-lane carriageway and the 57.8 km two-lane A8 South, from Rironi to Naivasha will be strengthened and maintained over a period of 30 years.
Both roads are major routes stretching across the most densely populated parts of the country, beginning in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital and commercial nerve center, and traverse several counties in Nakuru and Kiambu, agricultural zones, wildlife reserves and tourism centers. The roads also form part of the strategic “Northern Corridor” which is the busiest trade and transport corridor in East Africa, providing gateway access to Kenya’s landlocked neighbouring countries.
African Development Bank Group approves $73.5 million to boost food production in Tanzania
The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group today approved $73.5 million to finance a program that will boost Tanzania’s food production by a million tonnes in three years.
The Tanzania Agricultural Inputs Support Project, spanning September 2022-June 2025, was designed under the Bank Group’s African Emergency Food Production Facility to tackle a potential food crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. It seeks to strengthen the country’s capacity to achieve self-sufficiency in wheat and edible oil production by 2030.
Kenya: African Development Bank approves €89 million loan to bolster economic recovery
The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group has approved an €89 million loan to boost the Kenyan government’s economic recovery efforts.
The loan will provide funding for the second phase of Kenya’s Competitiveness and Economic Recovery Support Program (CERSP) that was approved by the Bank in June 2021 and will help the country to free up fiscal space to address other priorities in one of the region’s largest economies. CERSP supports reforms under three components: (i) attaining fiscal sustainability by enhancing anti-money laundering and e-procurement frameworks and oversight over the operations of state-owned enterprises; (ii) strengthening industrial development and competitiveness to deepen the contribution of the manufacturing sector in line with the “Big Four” agenda while fostering climate resilience and green growth; and (iii) enhancing economic and social inclusion by furthering the social protection system and universal health coverage.
African Development Bank extends €121 million food-production loan to Senegal to cushion impacts of war in Ukraine
The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group today approved a €121 million loan to Senegal for implementation of an emergency agricultural programme that will benefit 850,000 small farmers, 35% of whom are women..
"Senegal's dependence on the outside world for basic commodities and foodstuffs is a real bottleneck and poses a threat to the country's food sovereignty, which has been sharpened by the war in Ukraine," said Mohamed Chérif, the Bank’s Country Manager for Senegal. "This operation is intended to mitigate exogenous financial, economic, social and climate shocks and to maintain the upward trend in cereal production seen in recent years, especially by focusing efforts on the availability of key inputs including seeds and fertilizers to producers," he added.
African Development Bank, Africa50 and the newly launched African Sovereign Investors Forum signal strong desire to jointly mobilize capital for infrastructure projects
Africa50, the African Development Bank, and Africa Sovereign Investors Forum (ASIF), have signed a letter of intent to collaborate on developing green and climate resilient infrastructure projects across Africa. The three entities will work together to galvanize financing and to drive the development of skills and expertise within the infrastructure sector.
The signing took place on 20 June 2022 in Rabat, Morocco, during an event to launch the Africa Sovereign Investors Forum. Under the high patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI of the Kingdom of Morocco, 10 African sovereign investors agreed to set up the Forum. The newly formed platform will accelerate coordination to mobilize patient capital for the continent’s development.