Victor EzejaTo help African countries build resilience to the negative impacts of climate change and in transition to sustainable energy resources, the African Development Bank (AfDB) has engaged in global partnership to raise $25 billion.
AfDB President, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina who stated this on Sunday through a statement posted on his verified Twitter handle, added that it is being done in collaboration with the Global Centre for Adaptation, and former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.
The AfDB President stated this while highlighting some of the interventions of the bank in different sectors, like health care, agriculture, entrepreneurship, among others, as the institution begins its Annual Meeting for 2022 today (May 23) in Ghana.
He said, ‘’To help Africa adapt to climate change, the bank is partnering globally. Together with Global Centre for Adaptation, with former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, we are mobilizing $25 billion in support of Africa.”
The meeting is scheduled to hold from 23-27 May in Accra, Ghana with the theme, “Achieving Climate Resilience and a Just Energy Transition for Africa.”
According to AfDB, the meeting’s deliberations will focus on how to boost funding for climate adaptation and related matters in Africa.
“Climate adaptation finance currently accounts for only 10% of global climate finance. Overall, only about 19% of total international adaptation finance is programmed in Africa, with the continent receiving only 3% of global climate finance flows,” AfDB stated.
Adesina in his Twitter remarks, stated that board of the bank had approved a crisis response facility of up to $10 billion based on rigorous risk assessments when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, adding that it launched a $3 billion COVID-19 social bond on the global capital markets, the highest ever US dollar-denominated social bond in world history.
He noted that the bank’s intervention during the onslaught of COVID-19 helped in stabilisation of African economies.
“Our rapid COVID-19 response facility helped towards stabilising African economies. It trained 130,000 health workers. It provided social protection for about 30 million vulnerable households. It provided advisory support for 300,000 small and medium-sized businesses,” he added.
‘’To tackle food crisis from Russia-Ukraine crisis, our board of directors approved last week a $1.5 billion Africa Emergency Food Production Facility, to support 20 million farmers to produce 38 million metric tonnes of food. The bank partnered globally. We delivered.”
The AfDB boss also disclosed efforts towards helping to boost businesses of women entrepreneurs, stating that the financial institution plans to lend $500 million to women in 2022.
He added that the bank’s Affirmative Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) is raising $5 billion for women businesses with support of French President, Emmanuel Macron and G-7.
‘’With the support of President Emmanuel Macron and G-7, our Affirmative Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) is raising $5 billion for women businesses. In 2021, we paid out $483 million to financial institutions to lend to women businesses. We will lend $500 million for women in 2022.’’
Commenting of credit finance rating of the bank, Adesina said the AfDB is an AAA-rated financial institution, the only one in Africa and has consistently maintained that over the years.
“The African Development Bank was ranked by Global Finance as the Best multilateral financial institution in the world in 2021. The African Development Fund was ranked by CGD as second best in the world, ahead of all 28 concessional financing institutions in developed countries.
“We are a AAA-rated financial institution, the only one in Africa. We have consistently maintained our stellar AAA credit ratings by all major global credit rating agencies, who consistently praise our excellent risk management at the bank.
“We have an excellent and robust management and governance system. We deliver great value for our clients in Africa. Over the past six years, through our High five programmes, our work has impacted on 335 million people. We deliver great value,” AfDB boss stated.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
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