About 370 transformative bank projects valued at $11.3bn were embarked upon between 2010 and 2017 by the African Development Bank in the African region.
In 2018, the bank approved innovative financial instruments on 65 projects in fifteen countries valued at $2.8bn.
This was disclosed when governors representing the African Development Bank West Africa region held consultative meetings with the institution’s president and senior management in Abidjan on Monday.
While taking stock of the bank’s accelerated engagement in the region, the bank said the projects were changing lives and making a difference in the region.
The President, AfDB, Akinwumi Adesina, in his opening remarks, said, “Our ultimate goal is to ensure that the governors are much closer to the bank, and that you are integrally involved in the wider vision and direction, particularly as it pertains to the challenges and needs of your respective regions.
Today, I am filled with hope; hope because Africa is changing; hope because across the continent, despite challenges, you can see a rising determination to turn things around.”
During the consultations, the ministers called for greater focus on women to close the gender gap, address climate change, and increase attention to development in fragile states.
While noting that the bank was the economic arm of the African Union, the governors also highlighted the need for it to be involved in global issues in order to influence and help to shape the conversations around foreign investments.
The governors also focused on institutional capacity building, nutrition, data collection as well as regional integration and digital connectivity.
The governors, who were finance or economic planning ministers in their respective countries, were taken through the bank’s interventions and lendings over the past year in presentations by senior management.
Source: Punch Newspaper
