african-development-bank

Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, 16 January 2020 – New opportunities for bi-lateral trade and increasing UK investor appetite in Africa will be the main focus of the UK-Africa summit, convened by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, on January 20th.

African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina is expected in London for the milestone investment summit aimed at forging new partnerships under the theme: ‘Partners for prosperity.’ 

A busy agenda awaits President Adesina. Highlights of his UK trip includes a plenary panel discussion on ‘Sustainable Finance and Infrastructure – Unlocking the City of London and UK financial services for growth in Africa,’ alongside Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya and Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana. Discussions will focus on increasing access to investments in Africa and pursuing existing and untapped opportunities.

On January 21st, President Adesina will deliver a keynote at the Sustainable Infrastructure Forum, an associated event of the UK Africa Investment Summit, followed by another keynote address at the UK’s All-Party Parliament Group (APPG) Symposium.

The one-day event, co-organized by the Royal African Society and Oxford Brooks University, will see the participation of UK parliamentarians, academics, and policymakers. 

The future trade relationship between the UK and Africa and the African Continental Free Trade Area in the context of Brexit are expected to top discussions.

Speakers at the symposium include Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa; Dr. Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General of UNCTAD and Ms. Paulina Elago, Executive Secretary of the Southern African Customs Union, SACU.

The Bank’s president will wrap up his engagements with a UK-African Development Bank strategic dialogue. The dialogue with the Department for International Development (DFID) will focus on the President’s vision for Africa and how the Bank can spur the continent’s economic transformation, especially in the areas of infrastructure and regional integration, private sector development and jobs, and women’s economic empowerment. Climate change, energy access, addressing fragility, promoting resilience, and good governance principles will also be discussed.

Africa and the UK are long-standing partners. Trade stood at over £33bn in 2018.  Close to 2,000 British businesses currently operate in Africa.

In 2016, Africa’s exports to the UK accounted for £17 billion, having grown marginally from $16.7 billion in 2015. Africa’s major exporters to the UK, in 2016, included South Africa, which takes the lion’s share with 58%, followed by Nigeria with 7%, Algeria, Morocco and Egypt 5% each.

Over the next decade, Africa is expected to play an increasingly significant global role. The continent’s population is projected to double to 2 billion people by 2050, representing a quarter of the world population.

The UK-Africa Summit is a unique opportunity to expand investment and trade opportunities.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has endorsed the candidacy of African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina for a second term at the helm of the institution.

The decision was announced at the end of the fifty-sixth ordinary session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS, held on Saturday in Abuja, Nigeria.

“In recognition of the sterling performance of Dr. Akinwumi Adesina during his first term of office as President of the African Development Bank, the Authority endorses his candidacy for a second term as the President of the bank,” ECOWAS said in a communique issued after the meeting.

Adesina is the eighth elected President of the African Development Bank Group. He was elected to the five-year term on 28 May 2015 by the Bank’s Board of Governors at its Annual Meetings in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, where the same electoral process will play out next year.

Adesina is a renowned development economist and the first Nigerian to serve as President of the Bank Group. He has served in a number of high-profile positions internationally, including with the Rockefeller Foundation, and was Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development from 2011 to 2015, a career stint that was widely praised for his reforms in the agricultural sector. The former minister brought the same drive to the Bank, making agriculture one of the organization’s priority areas.

Speaking earlier at the opening ceremony, Adesina reminded the group of the African Development Bank’s investments in the region.

“You can always count on the African Development Bank – your Bank,” Adesina told delegates.

ECOWAS President Jean-Claude Kassi Brou commended the Bank’s involvement in West Africa and said it had provided “invaluable technical and financial interventions…in the implementation of numerous projects and programmes”.

The ECOWAS summit included a progress report on the region’s economic performance. It noted the role of the African Development Bank in the continent’s transformation and called for greater cooperation in order to fund projects in West Africa.

“The Authority takes note of the region’s improved economic performance, with ECOWAS real GDP growing by 3.3% in 2019 against 3.0% in 2018, in a context characterised by a decline in inflationary pressures and sound public finances,” the statement said.

“It urges the Member States to continue economic reforms and ensure a sound macroeconomic environment in Member States, with a view to accelerating the structural transformation of ECOWAS economies and facilitating the achievement of the monetary union by 2020.”

The Authority commended efforts made on currency and monetary policy convergence in ECOWAS and laid out plans to advance the movement. These efforts are a key part of the regional integration agenda championed by the African Development Bank, as exemplified by the African Continental Free Trade Area, which aims to become the world’s largest free trade zone.

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The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank has approved a grant of $5 million to enable the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme to scale up its outreach and impact to 1,000 select youth entrepreneurs.

The grant follows the signing of a letter of intent between the Bank and the Tony Elumelu Foundation, which took place during the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme launch in March this year. The partnership will bring about future collaboration focused on strengthening small to medium-sized enterprises as well as talent and skills development for Africa’s youth.

The partnership will support 3,050 young entrepreneurs across 54 African countries. The Bank’s participation will enable an additional 1,000 entrepreneurs to benefit from the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Program, which provides much needed opportunities to help stem the rising tide of unemployment and inequality facing the continent’s youngest citizens.

The programme aligns with the Bank’s ten-year Jobs for Youth in Africa strategy launched in 2016, to support the creation of 25 million decent jobs across the continent. The strategy is also expected to equip 50 million young African people with employable skills that enable them to access economic opportunities and realize their full economic potential across the continent.

The Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme will deliver business training, mentoring, access to networks, markets and capital for business development to selected youth-led start-ups in order for them to grow and create jobs.

The Entrepreneurship Programme demonstrates a strong alignment with the Bank’s Youth Entrepreneurship and Innovation Multi-Donor Trust Fund objectives to build the African youth entrepreneurship ecosystem by scaling innovative youth led start-ups, expanding youth market opportunities and improving youth access to finance.

Other development partners involved in supporting the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme are Agence Française de Développement, the German Agency for International Cooperation, the United Nations Development Programme and the International Committee of the Red Cross. They will also work to provide more business opportunities to youth entrepreneurs across the continent.

In 2017, the Bank established the Youth Entrepreneurship and Innovation Multi-Donor Trust Fund, in partnership with the governments of Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Italy and the Netherlands. The fund is a grant vehicle managed by the Bank to support the African entrepreneurship ecosystem directly and indirectly by leveraging on the Bank’s instruments. Its interventions will equip Africa’s youth with the right tools to establish start-ups and micro, small and medium enterprises.

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Over three million people in Tanzania and Kenya will benefit from a €345 million financing package for road construction support, approved by the African Development Bank’s board in Abidjan on Thursday.

The Bank’s support for the Mombasa-Lunga Lunga/Horohoro and Tanga-Pangani-Bagamoyo roads Phase I, is in the form of African Development Bank and African Development Fund loans and represents 78.5% of the total €399.7 million project cost.  The European Union contributed a grant of €30 million, 7.7% of the total project cost, to the government of Kenya.

The road is a key component of the East African transport corridors network, connecting Kenya and Tanzania. Producers, manufacturers and traders will be able to move goods more quickly and cheaply. In addition, farmers and fishermen will benefit from improved access to local and regional markets and amenities, including better schools and health centres.

“The project will have spillover benefits for hinterland countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan that depend on Mombasa as gateway to global markets,” said Hussein Iman, the Bank’s Regional Sector Manager for infrastructure, private sector, and industrialization.

The Bank’s support will also provide roadside trading facilitates for sellers, half of them women who currently operate in disorganized and unsafe conditions. 

The road crosses regions with high rates of youth unemployment. In light of this, the project includes a vocational training component for 500 unemployed youth (half of them women) to acquire marketable skill and improve their economic prospects.

The Bank anticipates that the intervention will boost regional integration by reducing transit times, facilitating trade and the cross-border movement of people, opening access to tourist attractions. The project will also link the ports of Dar es Salaam, Tanga and Mombasa, and stimulate the blue economy in coastal areas.

This first phase involves the construction of 175 km of road sections:  the 121 km Mkanga-Pangani road section in Tanzania and the 54 km Mombasa-Kilifi road section in Kenya.

The intervention is a priority item in the Bank’s Eastern Africa Regional Integration Strategy (EA-RISP), the Country Strategy Papers (CSPs) of both countries and aligns with two of the Bank’s High 5 priorities – Integrate Africa and Improve the quality of life for the people of Africa.

Regional integration is a priority for Kenya, and Tanzania. However, poor infrastructure has been a major constraint.

This week, the Bank witnessed the signing of a $440 million agreement between Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the government of Kenya for the first phase construction of a bridge connecting Mombasa island and Likoni, a major international port area of East Africa.

The Mombasa Gate Bridge will be the longest cable-stayed bridge in Africa, providing a critical link over the Indian Ocean along the just approved Mombasa – Lunga Lunga/Horohoro and Tanga – Pangani – Bagamoyo corridor phase I.

The total amount of co-financing is expected to be more than $ 1.2 billion when subsequent phases of the project are concluded – the largest co-financing agreement between the Bank and JICA.

“We are confident that we can all work together to accomplish this important task and other projects in the future,” Nnenna Nwabufo, the Bank’s Acting Director General for the East Africa Region, said at the signing.

As at the end of November 2019, the Bank’s portfolio in Kenya comprises 27 public and 7 private operations with a total commitment of 2.7 billion euros.

The Bank’s portfolio in Tanzania as at the end of November 2019 comprises 21 public and 2 private operations with a total commitment of 1.82 billion euros.

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Africa’s small island states are bearing the brunt of climate change, even though technology exists to prevent the worst impacts of extreme weather.

Climate expert John Harding said fewer lives were being lost as a result of natural disasters, because of advanced early warning systems. However, many cash-strapped African countries are not benefiting from new technologies to develop early warning systems.

Harding was speaking on Tuesday at the COP25 climate conference in Madrid during a panel discussion on building the resilience of small island developing states (SIDS) against extreme climate events

“There are many reports that say in Africa…the coverage of climate and weather observing stations is eight times lower than recommended by WMO for optimal weather observation systems…Less than 50 percent of them provide the type of information required,” said Harding, who heads the secretariat of the Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems (CREWS).

The session was hosted by the African Development Bank, a significant investor in efforts to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

Andre Kamga, director general of the ACMAD Center in Niger, said the Bank-funded severe weather observation project, SAWIDRA, had enabled the use of data to generate forecasts and early warning systems in Africa.

“What matters on the ground is the warning, which emergency services must use during disaster events to save lives,” Kamga said.

Linus Mofor, senior environmental affairs officer at the UN Economic Commission for Africa, said governments should invest in their climate response as they do in other economic sectors.

“Having said that, in the absence of the investment in early warning systems,, should we just fold our arms?”

The session was moderated by Antonio Palazuelos, from SYAH Cabo Verde, whose small island nation has been battered by extreme weather. The African Development Bank’s 2019 African Economic Outlook cites climate shocks as one of the headwinds facing Cabo Verde in the Atlantic; likewise the Indian Ocean islands of the Comoros, Madagascar and the Seychelles.

“Small islands have been for a long time not very much in the focus, so we are very glad to be here to say we need support from partners. We need to get more into robust early warning systems,” Palazuelos said.

James Kinyangi, head of the African Development Bank’s Climate and Development Special Fund, said small island states were a key constituency.

“The bank supports investments to modernize hydro-meteorological systems in Africa and manages partner efforts to address the weak observational capacity and lack of severe weather early warning systems for small island developing states in Africa,” he said.

Anthony Nyong, Director for Climate Change and Green Growth at the African Development Bank, followed up the session with another panel discussion on Wednesday on SIDS leadership on the ocean, climate and sustainable development goals.

He said the Bank had made investments to support island states, such as deep sea mining, and had identified the blue economy as a key part of its Feed Africa strategy to strengthen fisheries and other marine resources, creating wealth to “empower the African continent, not go to other countries”.

Nyong said the Bank had released about $17 million to invest in data systems to arm states with the information to better prepare for climate related disasters.

“The Island States are our shareholders and our clients. We pay very close attention to them. If they disappear with the rising sea levels, then it means we really need to assist them build resilience,” Nyong said.

He said island states offered opportunities for private sector investment, despite their challenges. “We are creating an enabling environment, working with countries…providing guarantees to improve the business environment and support climate resilient development.”

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The African Development Bank has validated a study report on enhancing regional and sub-regional power projects to enhance energy access and integration across the continent.

The report, entitled ‘Regional and sub-Regional Power Project Acceleration Programme,’was validated at a three-day workshop organised in collaboration with the Africa Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) on the sidelines of the 2019 Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) Week. This year’s PIDA theme was: “Positioning Africa to deliver on Agenda 2063 and economic integration through multi-sectoral approaches to infrastructure development”.

Across the African continent, high-priority regional and sub-regional projects have often stalled because they are considered commercially unviable or un-bankable. The programme intends to boost private investments, enhance cross border power trading, and expand regional integration by accelerating the resolution of technical, legal, regulatory, financial, procurement, environmental and social issues for large-scale projects in Africa.

Among the Bank’s recommendations is the development of a Power Infrastructure Project Evaluation (PIPE) tool kit to be used in screening and prioritizing potential projects for possible technical assistance and funding support. It also recommended the establishment of regional power infrastructure project acceleration units (RPAUs).

“To overcome the diverse constraints in Africa’s power sector, the African Development Bank launched the Regional and sub-Regional Power Project Acceleration Programme. It provides incentives for development finance institutions to mobilise financing for the power sector through regional and sub-regional connectivity”, said Angela Nalikka, the Bank’s Manager for National and Regional Power Systems.

“We want to facilitate the bankability of selected high priority regional power projects and mobilize financing through the development of innovative regional infrastructure funding concepts for the Bank, and other development finance institutions”, Nalikka added.

In 2018, Africa Energy Ministers directed AUDA-NEPAD to champion the development of a Continental Transmission Masterplan together with other partners on the continent.  The Master Plan will inform some of the energy projects under the PIDA Priority Action Plan 2 (2021-2030).

The Regional and Sub-regional Project Acceleration Program (RSPAP) study report is aligned with the Bank’s New Deal on Energy for Africa which aspires to add 160GW of power generation capacity to contribute to universal energy access in the continent by 2030. The report is to be integrated into the Continental Power System Master Plan, where the developed Power Infrastructure Project Evaluation (PIPE) tool Kit and innovative financing mechanisms will be applied.

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There was standing room only as ministers, diplomats, activists and journalists gathered at the IFEMA conference centre in Madrid to mark Africa Day at the COP 25 climate meeting.

Speakers called for a united front to tackle the challenges of climate change in Africa.

In the opening statement for Africa Day on Tuesday, Yasmin Fouad, Egypt’s Minister of Environmental Affairs, on behalf of the African Union, said: “We have, and will continue to engage and to seek landing grounds on the outstanding issues. But we must flag our concern at the apparent reluctance by our interlocutors to engage on issues of priority to developing countries, as evidenced by the large number of such issues which have simply been pushed from session to session without any progress.”

Africa contributes the least to global warming emissions yet is the continent most vulnerable to climate change, as witnessed by devastating natural disasters recently. Africa Day has been held at the conference every year since COP 17 in 2011 to rally support for the continent’s cause.

“The climate disaster issues confronting the continent demand a predictable and unified response,” said UN ASG Mohamed Beavogui, Director General of African Risk Capacity, an agency of the African Union that helps governments respond to natural disasters.

“Africa needs to move towards market-based innovative financing models to achieve a strong, united, resilient and globally influential continent. The future of Africa depends on solidarity.”

Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), said the ECA would support African countries to revise their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to attract private sector investments in clean energy.

“The lack of concerted and meaningful global ambition and action to tackle climate change poses an existential threat to African populations,” Songwe said.

The Paris Agreement is the guiding force of current climate negotiations. It calls on nations to curb temperature increases at 2°C by the end of this century, while attempting to contain rises within 1.5°C. The next step is to implement NDCs, which set out national targets under the Paris Agreement.

While African countries outlined bold aspirations to build climate resilient and low-carbon economies in their NDCs, the continent’s position is that it should not be treated the same as developed nations as its carbon emissions constitute a fraction of the world’s big economies.

“The African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) remains committed to partnering with other institutions in providing the requisite support to AU member states in reviewing and updating their NDCs,” said Estherine Fotabong, Director of Programmes at AUDA-NEPAD.

Barbara Creecy, South Africa’s Environment Minister and current chair of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment, said the Africa Day event should come up with new ideas to enhance the implementation of NDCs in Africa.

Africa is already responding positively to the challenge of climate change, said Anthony Nyong, Director for Climate Change and Green Growth at the African Development Bank, citing huge investment interest in renewables at the Bank’s Africa Investment Forum in Johannesburg.

“Clearly, we are a continent that has what it takes to create the Africa that we want to see happen. I believe what has been the missing link is the ability to brand right and to act on the market signals,” Nyong said. “We continue to present Africa as a vulnerable case and not as a business case with opportunities. In fact, where we have attempted the latter, the results have been spot-on.”

Chief Fortune Charumbira, Vice President of the Pan-African Parliament, said robust climate legislation was key.

“The world’s response to the challenge has shown that legislation is imperative to cement efforts employed by various stakeholders; from the Paris Agreement to Nationally Determined Contributions,” he said.

Amb. Josefa Sacko, Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture at the African Union Commission, said climate change affected sectors key to Africa’s socio-economic development, such as agriculture, livestock and fisheries, energy, biodiversity and tourism. She called on African countries to take stock of the Paris Agreement, and its implementation around finance capacity building and technology.

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Three leading development partners have presented a digital application at the COP 25 climate conference in Madrid to help African countries grappling with the simultaneous implementation of key global initiatives.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), African Development Bank Group, and the African Union Development Agency-NEPAD (AUDA-NEPAD) on Tuesday unveiled the Guide for Integrated Planning in Africa.

The guide will help  mainstream the Sustainable Development Goals, AU Agenda 2063, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change/Nationally Determined Contributions, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and The New Deal for Engagement in Fragile States into African countries’ national development plans. The step-by-step guide provides African planners with a new generation of national development strategic and operational plans that mainstream these global initiatives.

Aliou Dia, UNDP Resident Representative in Togo, called the guide a welcome addition. The new guide “will help governments in the continent to accelerate the delivery of the SDGs in the decade of implementation; it will also support the implementation of UNDP’s Climate Promise whichs help countries revise and submit enhanced NDCs by 2020, and reflect them into their new national development plans,” he said.

“Good planning tools enable us to streamline our work; better planning facilitates efficient resource allocation and effective delivery. We are committed to working with Regional Member Countries to mainstream the global development agendas in the national development plans with the ultimate goal of ending poverty, generating jobs for youth and protecting the planet,” said Anthony Nyong, Director for Climate Change and Green Growth at the African Development Bank Group.

Estherine Fotabong, Director of Programme Innovation and Planning at the African Union Development Agency, said: “The Guide supports our vision to harness knowledge to deliver the Africa we want, fostering the development of the continent through effective and integrated planning, coordination and implementation of Agenda 2063 with Member States, Regional Economic Communities and Pan-African institutions, by leveraging partnerships and technical cooperation.”

The Guide for Integrated Planning in Africa will be available as a digital application, and in handbook format. The digital application will make it easier for African planners to search for and apply tools for developing a new generation of national development plans. Additional features include interactive pages that allow planners to apply tools directly on the online platform and deliver outputs, such as results frameworks or the theory of change.

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The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank approved a €62.83 million loan to the Government of Senegal for implementation of the first phase of a project aimed at providing jobs for 150,000 women and youth.

Funding for the Project to Support and Enhance Women’s and Young People’s Entrepreneurial Initiatives (PAVIE I), is composed of a €14 million loan from the African Development Fund and a €48.83 million loan from the African Development Bank.

“PAVIE is intended to support the Government of Senegal’s efforts to implement the Plan for Safeguarding Jobs (PSE) to create decent work for young people and women, through the promotion of entrepreneurship,” explained Marie-Laure Akin-Olugbadé, the Bank’s General Manager for West Africa.

PAVIE was designed as a demand-driven approach to be implemented in coordination with the private sector, banks and microfinance institutions. The project will finance businesses and entrepreneurial initiatives by women and young people throughout Senegal, offering them technical support for their business plans and business management.

Serge N’Guessan, The Bank’s Deputy General Manager for West Africa, added, “Given the encouraging and promising results already achieved, the Rapid Entrepreneurship Delegation (DER) is well worth supporting. The Bank’s action will help to strengthen the DER approach based on structuring agricultural and artisanal value chains to create a multiplier effect on employment and the digital transformation of the companies it supports, to further increase their productivity and competitiveness.”

The project is expected to finance over 14,000 entrepreneurial initiatives and generate or consolidate some 65,000 direct and 89,000 indirect jobs. Of these, 60% will be dedicated to women. In addition, more than 27,000 entrepreneurs, including 15,000 women, will receive training and 2200 enterprises will have the benefit of support for their digital transformation, while a further 3500 (50% of which are headed by women) will have support for their move from the informal to the formal economy.

Adam Amoumoun, Acting Country Manager for Senegal, said, “This project is planned to be an effective and innovative response to the challenge of finding work for young people and women in Senegal which, like every African country facing the employment challenge, is seeking a sustainable and lasting solution.”

The Bank’s active portfolio in Senegal comprises 32 operations with a commitment of around €1.84 billion, or 1205 billion CFA francs. It is composed of projects in the national public sector, regional projects, and operations financed by the private sector.

Donors of the African Development Fund (ADF) on Thursday agreed to commit $7.6 billion to speed up growth in Africa’s poorest nations and help lift millions out of poverty.

This fifteenth replenishment of the ADF (ADF-15), up 32% from the previous cycle, sends a strong signal of trust in the Fund, which is the concessional window of the African Development Bank Group.

The Fund comprises 32 contributing states and benefits 37 countries – including those experiencing higher growth rates, headed towards new emerging markets, and fragile states needing special support for basic service delivery. The Fund’s resources are replenished every three years.

ADF-15 will support Africa’s most vulnerable countries by tackling the root causes of fragility, strengthening resilience, and mainstreaming cross-cutting issues. These include gender, climate change, governance, private sector development, and decent job creation.

“What a great pledge we’ve achieved with your support… Together we’ve exceeded the target set for this replenishment. What a great and successful replenishment story that is, “said Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank.

Over the past 45 years, the ADF has played an important role in the development journey of African low-income countries.

In just nine years, the ADF has made a difference and positively impacted the lives of millions by:

• Improving access to electricity for 10.9 million people;
• Providing agriculture infrastructure and inputs for 90 million people—including 43 million women;
• Improving access to markets and connections between countries to 66.6 million people;
• Contributing to the continent’s regional integration agenda by rehabilitating more than 2,300 km of cross-border roads;
• Improving access to water and sanitation for 35.8 million people.

ADF-15 covers the period 2020-2022 and will build on successes of the fourteenth replenishment by being more selective and focused.

ADF-15 will focus on two Strategic Pillars: quality and sustainable infrastructure aimed at strengthening regional integration; and human governance and institutional capacity development for increased decent job creation and inclusive growth.

In pursuing these strategic priorities, ADF-15 will pay special attention to gender equality, climate change, private sector, and good governance promotion.

In his closing remarks, Patrick Dlamini CEO of the Development Bank of Southern Africa, DBSA, who spoke on behalf of South Africa’s Finance minister Tito Mboweni, said the deliberations and outcome demonstrated the confidence member countries place in the African Development Bank Group as “the cornerstone institution underpinning African development.”

“There is no better vehicle than the ADF,” he said. “Going forward, an ambitious programme of development lies ahead.”

ADF-15 will address root causes of vulnerability by systematically applying a fragility lens in all its operations. This will be specifically targeted at regions such as the Sahel, which will see a 65% increase in resources from the ADF over the next three-year period.

ADF-15 comes at a time of tremendous opportunities and challenges for ADF countries and the world.

During the next three years, the Fund will scale up its interventions with bold and profoundly transformative projects such as Desert to Power stretching across the Sahel region. This flagship programme, aims at transforming the Sahel into the world’s largest solar production zone with up to 10,000 MW of solar generation capacity and 250 million people connected to electricity.

As part of the initiative, the Yeleen Rural Electrification Project in Burkina Faso is set to provide access to electricity to 150,000 households, while the Djermaya Project in Chad will generate 10% of Chad’s power capacity.

“You will see a new spring in our step…we will be bold and decisive. We will stretch ourselves, and we will do more with your support,” Adesina said.

Editor’s note: In a Dec. 5 issue of this press release, paragraph 13 incorrectly had the figure 23%,  instead  of 65%

The African Development Bank and the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) have agreed to jointly develop a blueprint for a pan-continental electricity network and market.

The agreement to set up a Continental Power System Master Plan between the Bank and AUDA-NEPAD was unveiled, on November 29th, during a three-day workshop on the sidelines of Programme for Infrastructure Development (PIDA) Week held in Cairo. The workshop also produced the Masterplan’s terms of reference.

“The Continental Power System Master Plan will ensure that competitive electricity markets are developed at regional and continental levels, creating unique opportunities to optimally utilize Africa’s vast energy resources for the benefit of Africa,” said Professor Mosad Elmissiry, a Senior Energy Advisor to AUDA-NEPAD’s CEO.

The workshop was aimed at advancing the launch of an Integrated Continental Transmission Network (ICTN) to link national power utilities into regional power pools and, ultimately, into a continent-wide transmission network. Plans also include setting up a market for electricity trading.

The Masterplan also will inform the energy component of a PIDA Action Plan, which focuses on key regional integration projects.

Development of a unified electricity transmission network and market for electricity trading are viewed as a critical priority to improve the lives of people across the continent.

“Most state-owned electric utilities in Africa today are unable to secure the financial resources needed to implement required segments of regional interconnectors and associated national feeder lines,” said Angela Nalikka, the Bank’s manager for National and Regional Power Systems, to explain the impetus for the partnership. “The Bank plans to encourage private sector participation in transmission projects in the continent.”

*Source AFDB