ABIDJAN (Reuters) &#8211; The <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/west-africa/2020/06/03/nigerias-president-backs-embattled-african-development-bank-chief/">African Development Bank’s (AfDB)</a> board on Thursday said it stood by an internal investigation that had cleared its president of improper conduct, but it would carry out an independent review of the report in the interest of due process.



AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina has been accused of abuse of office by a whistleblower at the bank, including favouritism in hiring. He has denied the allegations and a report by the bank’s ethics board cleared him of wrongdoing.



The United States, AfDB’s second-largest shareholder, has demanded a new independent probe into the allegations, rejecting the bank’s investigation over reservations about the integrity of the bank’s process. Meanwhile, top shareholder <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/videos/2020/06/04/understanding-nigerias-debt-strategy-4/">Nigeria</a> has voiced its support for Adesina.



In a statement, AfDB’s board of governors said it believed the bank’s ethics committee, which produced the report, had carried out its role correctly. But the board has nevertheless agreed to authorise a review.



“The independent review shall be conducted by a neutral high caliber individual with unquestionable experience, high international reputation and integrity,” it said.



On Tuesday, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari gave his backing to Adesina in his bid for a second term as AfDB president despite the allegations.



Adesina later this year plans to pursue a second term as the head of the multilateral lender, which is headquartered in Ivory Coast’s commercial capital Abidjan.



The board said the review of the investigation would take no more than four weeks and not interfere with the bank’s electoral calendar.



The bank’s whistle-blowing and complaints handling policy will also be reviewed at a later date to ensure it is being properly implemented, it said.



(Reporting by Bate Felix; Additional reporting by Ange Aboa; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Sam Holmes)



This article was first published on Reuters <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-africa-bank-idUSKBN23B3HG">https://www.reuters.com/article/us-africa-bank-idUSKBN23B3HG</a> and is republished with its permission.



For more coverage on COVID-19 visit: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/covid-19/">https://www.cnbcafrica.com/covid-19/</a>

AfDB board stands by embattled President Adesina

African Development Bank board stands by embattled President Adesina

ABUJA (Reuters) &#8211; Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday gave his backing to the head of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, in his re-election bid despite allegations of improper conduct.



Adesina, who served as Nigeria’s agriculture minister before taking the AfDB’s top job in 2015, has been accused of abuse of office by a whistleblower at the bank including favouritism in hiring.



Adesina, who denied the allegations, was later cleared of wrongdoing in an internal investigation.









But U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin signed a letter to the bank’s board on May 22 rejecting the internal investigation.



The United States, AfDB’s second-largest shareholder after Nigeria, is demanding a new independent investigation, saying it has reservations about the integrity of the banks process.



Adesina later this year plans to pursue a second term as a the head of the multilateral lender, which is headquartered in Ivory Coast’s commercial capital Abidjan. He visited Buhari in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, on Tuesday.



“President Muhammadu Buhari says Nigeria will stand solidly behind Dr Akinwumi Adesina in his bid to get re-elected as President of the African Development Bank,” a statement from Buhari’s office said.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">President Muhammadu Buhari says Nigeria will stand solidly behind Dr Akinwumi Adesina in his bid to get re-elected as President of the African Development Bank</blockquote>



It also quoted Adesina as saying the allegations levelled against him are baseless.



“I was exonerated, and any other investigation would amount to bending the rules of the bank, to arrive at a predetermined conclusion,” Adesina said.



Several former African heads of state and current presidents have signed a separate statement supporting Adesina.

Africa Investment Forum: $68bn in investment this time – Adesina

Nigeria’s president backs embattled African Development Bank chief

By Akinwumi Adesina, President of the&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.afdb.org/en" target="_blank">African Development Bank</a>



These are very difficult days, as the world faces one of its worst challenges ever: the novel coronavirus pandemic. And it seems almost no nation is spared. As infection rates rise, so does panic across financial markets, as economies drastically slow down, and supply chains are severely disrupted.&nbsp;



Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. As such, it can no longer be business as usual.&nbsp;



FOR MORE ON COVID-19 VISIT:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/covid-19/">https://www.cnbcafrica.com/covid-19/</a>



Each day, the situation evolves and requires constant reviews of precautionary measures and strategies. In the midst of all this, we must all worry about the ability of every nation to respond to this crisis. And we must ensure that developing nations are prepared to navigate these uncharted waters fully.&nbsp;



That&#8217;s why I support the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres&#8217; urgent call for special resources for the world&#8217;s developing countries.&nbsp;



In the face of this pandemic, we must put lives above resources and health above debt. Why? Because developing economies are the most vulnerable at this time. Our remedies must go beyond simply lending more. We must go the extra mile and provide countries with much-needed and urgent financial relief &#8211; and that includes developing countries under sanctions.&nbsp;



For decades, sanctions have decimated investments in public health care systems in quite a number of countries<a href="#_ftn1">[1]</a>.&nbsp;Today, they are unable to face up to a clear and present danger that now threatens our collective existence<a href="#_ftn2">[2]</a>.



Only those that are alive can pay back debts.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Sanctions work against economies but not against the virus. If countries that are under sanctions are unable to respond and provide critical care for their citizens or protect them, then the virus will soon &#8220;sanction&#8221; the world.



In my Yoruba language, there is a saying, &#8220;be careful when you throw stones in the open market. It may hit a member of your family.&#8221;&nbsp;&nbsp;



That&#8217;s why I also strongly support the call by the UN Secretary-General that debts of low-income countries be suspended and in these fast-moving and uncertain times.&nbsp;



But I call for even bolder actions, and there are several reasons for doing so.&nbsp;



First, the economies of developing countries, despite years of great progress, remain extremely fragile and ill-equipped to deal with this pandemic. They are more likely to be buried with the heavy fiscal pressure they now face with the coronavirus.&nbsp;



Second, many of the countries in Africa depend on commodities for export earnings. The collapse of oil prices has thrown African economies into distress. They simply are not able to meet budgets as planned under pre-coronavirus oil price benchmarks<a href="#_ftn3">[3]</a>.



The impact has been immediate in the oil and gas sector, particularly affecting eight countries -Algeria, Angola, Chad, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Nigeria, and the Republic of Congo- that between them generate nearly half of Africa&#8217;s GDP<a href="#_ftn4">[4]</a>.&nbsp;



Those exporting other commodities besides oil, such as agricultural produce or minerals and metals, are facing drastic cuts in demand<a href="#_ftn5">[5]</a>. In the current environment, there is an acute shortage of buyers who, for understandable reasons, have re-allocated resources to addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. African countries that depend on tourism receipts as a key source of revenue are also in a straight-jacket.&nbsp;



Third, while rich countries have resources to spare, evidenced by trillions of dollars in fiscal stimulus, developing countries are hampered with bare-bones resources.&nbsp;



The fact is, if we do not collectively defeat the coronavirus in Africa, we will not defeat it anywhere else in the world. This is an existential challenge that requires all hands to be on deck. Today, more than ever, we must be our brothers and sisters&#8217; keepers.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Around the world, countries at more advanced stages in the outbreak are announcing liquidity relief, debt restructuring, forbearance on loan repayments, relaxation of standard regulations and initiatives. In the United States, packages of more than $2 trillion have already been announced, in addition to a reduction in Federal Reserve lending rates and liquidity support to keep markets operating. In Europe, the larger economies have announced stimulus measures in excess of 1 trillion Euros. Additionally, even larger packages are expected.&nbsp;



As developed countries put in place programs to compensate workers for lost wages for staying at home for social distancing, another problem has emerged &#8212; fiscal distancing.



Think for a moment what this means for Africa.&nbsp;



The African Development Bank estimates that COVID-19 could cost Africa a GDP loss between&nbsp;$22.1 billion (see attached Bank report), in the base-case scenario, and $88.3 billion in the worst-case scenario. This is equivalent to a projected GDP growth contraction of between 0.7 and 2.8 percentage points in 2020. It is even likely that Africa might fall into recession this year if the current situation persists.



The Covid-19 shock will further squeeze fiscal space in the continent as deficits are estimated to widen by 3.5 to 4.9 percentage points, increasing Africa&#8217;s financing gap by an additional $110 to $154 billion in 2020.&nbsp;



Our estimates indicate that Africa&#8217;s total public debt could increase, under the base case scenario, from $1.86 trillion at the end of 2019 to over $2 trillion in 2020, compared to $1.9 trillion projected in a no-pandemic scenario. These figures could reach $2.1 trillion in 2020 under the worst-case scenario.



This, therefore, is a time for bold actions. We should temporarily defer the debt owed to Multilateral Development Banks and International Financial Institutions. This can be done by re-profiling loans to create fiscal space for countries to deal with this crisis.&nbsp;&nbsp;



That means that loan principals, due to International Financial Institutions in 2020, could be deferred. I am calling for temporary forbearance, not forgiveness. What&#8217;s good for bilateral and commercial debt must be good for multilateral debt.



That way, we will avoid moral hazards, and rating agencies will be less inclined to penalize any institution on the potential risk to their Preferred Creditor Status.&nbsp; The focus of the world should now be on helping everyone, as a risk to one is a risk to all. There is no coronavirus for developed countries and a coronavirus for developing and debt stressed countries. We are all in this together.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Multilateral and bilateral financial institutions must work together with commercial creditors in Africa, especially to defer loan payments and give Africa the fiscal space it needs. We stand ready to support Africa in the short term and for the long haul. We are ready to deploy up to $50 billion over five years in projects to help with adjustment costs that Africa will face as it deals with the knock-on effects of COVID-19, long after the current storm subsides.&nbsp;



But more support will be needed. Let&#8217;s lift all sanctions, for now. Even in wartime, ceasefires are called for humanitarian reasons. In such situations, there is a time to pause for relief materials to reach affected populations. The novel coronavirus is a war against all of us. All lives matter. For this reason, we must avoid fiscal distancing at this time. A stitch in time will save nine.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Social distancing is imperative now. Fiscal distancing is not.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;







<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<a href="#_ftnref1">[1]</a>&nbsp;(<a href="https://www.odi.org/publications/384-impact-economic-sanctions-health-well-being" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.odi.org/publications/384-impact-economic-sanctions-health-well-being</a>, page 15)



<a href="#_ftnref2">[2]</a> (<a href="https://www.ghsindex.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.ghsindex.org/</a>)



<a href="#_ftnref3">[3]</a> AEO 2020&nbsp;<a href="https://www.afdb.org/en/knowledge/publications/african-economic-outlook" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.afdb.org/en/knowledge/publications/african-economic-outlook</a>)



<a href="#_ftnref4">[4]</a> (AEO 2020&nbsp;<a href="https://www.afdb.org/en/knowledge/publications/african-economic-outlook" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.afdb.org/en/knowledge/publications/african-economic-outlook</a>)



<a href="#_ftnref5">[5]</a> <a href="https://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/press_room/5870.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/press_room/5870.htm</a>&nbsp;&#8211; <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/08/investing/oil-prices-crash-opec-russia-saudi-arabia/index.html">https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/08/investing/oil-prices-crash-opec-russia-saudi-arabia/index.html</a>

adesina

Op-Ed: Why the COVID-19 pandemic is no time for fiscal distancing

LAGOS, Nov 30 (Reuters) &#8211; The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a $210 million loan to help Nigeria upgrade its dilapidated electricity transmission and distribution network.



The loan to Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) will support construction of 330KV double circuit quad transmission lines and sub-stations across the country, the bank said in a statement late on Friday.



The AfDB funded project will run across seven states and will improve the capacity of power grid where it is most constrained.



Nigeria privatised most of its power sector in 2013 but retained control of its monopoly grid, operated by TCN. Most of the country&#8217;s power generation is from thermal power stations that use gas.



The creaking power grid has often been blamed for hobbling growth in west Africa&#8217;s largest economy.



AfDB&#8217;s acting vice president for Power &amp; Energy, Wale Shonibare said implementing the project would increase evacuation from the south towards the north, where power supply is limited.



The project would also improve power export and regional power system integration to the West African Power pool, especially through Niger and Benin interconnections, he said.



The country&#8217;s power output stands at around 4,000 MW, the Nigeria Electricity System Operator has said. Total power generation capacity is about 7,000 MW but the transmission network cannot cope if plants operate at full tilt.



Nigeria&#8217;s privatized power sector typically does not use meters to provide invoices, bill collections are low and energy tariffs have remained fixed for three years.



The effect, say industry experts, is that electricity distribution companies recover so little revenue from customers that they pay less than a third of what they owe to generating companies &#8211; leaving the sector with ballooning debts. (Reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram Writing by Chijioke Ohuocha Editing by Christina Fincher)

AfDB approves $210 million loan for this West African nation’s power transmission project

<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="265" height="265" src="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/WhatsApp-Image-2019-11-30-at-07.51.13.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-351337" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/WhatsApp-Image-2019-11-30-at-07.51.13.jpeg 265w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/WhatsApp-Image-2019-11-30-at-07.51.13-150x150.jpeg 150w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 265px) 100vw, 265px" /></figure></div>



By Dr Hanan Morsy, Director, Macroeconomics Policy, Forecasting and Research Department, African Development Bank Group. 



Despite remarkable progress made on women’s participation in policymaking, Africa is still far from achieving the 50 percent gender parity target set by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).



Between
1995 and 2018, the proportion of women in African parliaments almost tripled
from 8% to 23% but remains insufficient. Out of 11,037 African parliamentarians
as of October 2018, only 2,591 were women and out of 1,348 ministers on the
continent only 302, or 22%, were women<a href="#_ftn1">[1]</a>. 



The
challenges in achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment, will be the
focus of the Global Gender Summit to be held in Kigali, Rwanda from the 25-27
November. The Summit, hosted by the African Development Bank in partnership
with the Government of Rwanda, will spotlight innovative financing, fostering
an enabling environment and ensuring women’s participation and voices.



Mainstreaming
gender in policymaking in Africa is crucial for at least three main reasons.
First, women are the main driving labor force in most African countries, making
a vital contribution to the economy. Empirical studies, including the African
Development Bank’s own research<a href="#_ftn2">[2]</a>,
have found that if women had equal access to productive resources such as land,
modern inputs, technology, or financial services, then the gender productivity
gap in agriculture of 20%-35% would almost disappear. 



This
suggests that African countries could significantly increase their production
by just closing the gender gap across economic sectors, particularly in agriculture.
Second, increasing women’s participation in policymaking has been found to lead
to higher GDP growth through increases in higher-skilled women in the labor
force and women’s employment in high-productivity sectors<a href="#_ftn3">[3]</a>. Africa
is therefore losing socio-economic opportunities by not doing enough to
encourage the voices of women. The continent cannot afford to wait any longer
to empower women. 



Gender
empowerment in policymaking can also boost women’s role as business leaders. Although
Africa boasts the world’s highest rate of women entrepreneurs (at 27%) and is the
only continent where more women than men choose to become entrepreneurs, most
female-led enterprises are small businesses, in the informal sector with little
growth prospects. 



Access
to finance is a key constraint and the Bank’s research found that women
entrepreneurs in Africa are more likely to self-select out of the credit market
due to perceived low creditworthiness compared to men<a href="#_ftn4">[4]</a>. 



By
influencing policymaking in their countries, women can help lift barriers to their
participation in labor markets which at 61% remains lower than men at 67%. 



And
to ensure that no voice remains unheard, much work needs to be done. Improving
women’s access to education is key. Better educated women are more likely to
influence policy. Despite commendable efforts, the gender gap in educational
attainment persists in most African countries, creating barriers to women’s
advancement.



For
instance, the average number of schooling years between 2010-2017 was 4.33 for
females but 5.6 for males in Africa. In many countries, the educational
disadvantage of women starts at primary school and by the time girls become
adolescents the educational gap has significantly widened.



One
solution to explore is to ensure universal access to education to all girls and
promote education parity at primary, secondary and tertiary levels. Several findings
indicate that countries with greater education parity have realized higher
economic growth<a href="#_ftn5">[5]</a>.
In addition to bringing girls into school, having them complete their grades is
also important, as the drop-out rate of girls in primary education is still very
high in Africa, with a third of girls dropping out between 2010-2017. 



Second,
government efforts to support the development of women’s political competency is
particularly important in raising their participation in policymaking. Mentoring
and training programs can equip women candidates with the necessary skills to successfully
run for political office. For elected women, leadership trainings would
strengthen their influence in policymaking and advocacy. 



Third,
scaling up of programs and initiatives or implementation of laws aimed at fostering
an enabling political environment for women will ensure that women’s voices are
heard. Although many African countries have made legal provisions guaranteeing
equal rights of men and women in policymaking and have even established gender
parity in their electoral systems, only a handful have implemented these laws.



Only
Rwanda, Ethiopia and Seychelles have achieved or are close to achieving gender
parity in their ministerial cabinets. Rwanda is the only country in Africa where
women outnumber men in the parliament (61.3% as of January 1, 2019). Other
countries such as Namibia (46.2%), South Africa (42.7%), or Senegal (41.8%) have
set examples for other nations to follow in mainstreaming gender in policymaking.




In
its own operations, the African Development Bank in 2018 launched a Gender
Marker System to track gender mainstreaming in its work. It has also developed
an Africa Gender Index in partnership with the United Nations Economic
Commission for Africa to measure gender parity across economic, social, and political
representation dimensions. 



With
its Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) initiative, the Bank
will extend women’s access to finance through commercial banks and financial
intermediaries, provide technical assistance to women, and engage policy and
regulatory bodies to create an enabling environment for women.



With initiatives such as AFAWA, and the Global Gender Summit in Kigali, the African Development Bank is advancing the course of women and ensuring that no voice is unheard.

Op-Ed: Mainstreaming gender in African policy making: Ensuring no voice is unheard

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1110" height="540" src="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/AFAWA_AfDB-1110x540.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-351333" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/AFAWA_AfDB-1110x540.jpg 1110w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/AFAWA_AfDB-300x146.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/AFAWA_AfDB-820x399.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/AFAWA_AfDB-768x374.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/AFAWA_AfDB-1536x747.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/AFAWA_AfDB-696x339.jpg 696w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/AFAWA_AfDB-1068x520.jpg 1068w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/AFAWA_AfDB-863x420.jpg 863w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/AFAWA_AfDB.jpg 1700w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px" /></figure>



By Angelique Kidjo



In African cultures, women play a nurturing role, they are the backbone of the continent. Yet, they face a $42 billion-dollar financing gap with over 3/4 of them being financially excluded.



This means that when it comes to lending money,
women are systematically seen as high-risk by financial institutions. In
Africa, viable guarantees often come in the form of land and properties, both
of which are rarely accessible to women. Land is, indeed, the most critical
economic resource for the vast majority of the population in rural areas who
depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. Yet, throughout many African
countries, women have less access, control, and ownership of this key assets
and their land rights are less secure. This often limits women&#8217;s economic
opportunities and leaves them more vulnerable to poverty.



As a result of this systemic discrimination
against women, access to financial services disproportionately favours men. For
instance, in Africa men have 50% more global wealth than women and run more
than 86% of businesses. Local barriers are also erected in front of African
women: most of them at the continental level operate in informal sectors or
very rural areas with limited banking facilities, making easy access to finance
almost unheard of. This is a market failure that must be addressed to ensure
equal access to banking and ultimately equal rights.



The capital lost because of the financial
exclusion of women is deeply affecting our economy and most importantly, deeply
impacting our societies. When you are struggling to make ends meet, to put a
meal on the table, to raise your kids, why wouldn’t you try to go to Europe,
despite the risks and the thousands of lives lost at sea?



The AFAWA initiative is a direct response to
the challenges faced by women in Africa, and the need to unlock access to
finance. It is a major step in the right direction for women all over Africa,
but it is certainly not the end of the battle. AFAWA’s primary end
beneficiaries are African women’s enterprises across the continent, often
neglected by the traditional banking system. A more equal – and gender equal –
Africa is not just a political ideal. It will have a ripple effect on Africa’s
development and human capital. It will lay the foundations for a resilient,
prosperous and forward-looking Africa.



The goal here is to work towards eliminating
these structural and cultural barriers, creating wealth, generating growth, and
supporting female entrepreuneurship. It is surely the first of many steps
towards women’s empowerment, which will ultimately lead to economic growth
across the entire continent. But banks and governments need to act, and act
now, for women to be empowered, for these inequalities to be resolved, and for
the economy to grow.



Women in Africa are the heartbeat of the
continent, they are the agents of long lasting change. If we want to invest in
the future, we need to empower women by investing in them. 



Of course, we know that the AFAWA initiative
alone will not by itself tear down the many hurdles inhibiting women’s
abilities and opportunities. However, I believe that this initiative can
significantly shape the future of Africa.

AFAWA_AfDB

Op-Ed: How the AFAWA initiative is empowering women to propel Africa forward

Kigali, Rwanda, 25 November 2019 – African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina has called for greater access to finance for African women when he addressed the inaugural session of the Global Gender Summit.



&#8220;When women borrow, they
always repay. And 90% of them repay their loans without the least problem. So,
where is the risk? The problem is prejudice and the banks&#8217; lack of flexibility.
We must leave this behind to allow women access to financing,&#8221; President
Adesina urged.



The session headed &#8220;Unlocking women&#8217;s access
to finance in Africa&#8221; had a panel of high-level speakers,
including Salimata Diop Dieng, the Senegalese Minister of Women, Family and
Gender; Andrew Temu, President of the African Guarantee Fund; Kennedy Uzoka,
President and CEO of United Bank of Africa (UBA); Joséphine Anan-Ankomah, CEO
of Ecobank Group; and Christine Ngiriye, an entrepreneur.



Salimata Diop Deng said,
&#8220;It is important that financial institutions support initiatives from
women. They have the market gardens and produce to process. They create
start-ups in innovative areas. But they lack resources and collateral, and the
procedures for accessing loans are complicated. These women have relatively
moderate finance needs, just enough to create projects and jobs. They need
support from the private sector and the banks to help them weave their way into
the economy.&#8221;



Andrew Temu advocated
&#8220;holding discussions with countries to improve the business environment.
What is especially needed is legislation that reassures the banks. There are a
number of actors, banks, investors, entrepreneurs and clients operating within
the economic market. Everyone needs to be in communication to address the
risks.&#8221;



For Anan-Ankomah, ECOBANK is
already making big strides to gender parity. The pan-African bank has signed up
to the African Union gender parity principle of 50/50. “Currently we are at 46%
and out of that, 30% of those women are in senior management positions,” she
said.



Ngiriye said that she had seen
little change in nearly 30 years: &#8220;The problem that comes up again and
again is that of collateral.”



According to Adesina the
financial sector had a responsibility to the women of Africa. And he made an
announcement: &#8220;From now on, we shall be grading every African financial
institution for how well it helps women. Every financial ecosystem must evolve
to support women. And we are going to put pressure on the guarantee
banks.&#8221;



The African Development Bank and the government of Rwanda are hosting the Global Gender Summit from 25 to 27 November in Kigali. The Summit is being organised by the Multilateral Development Banks’ (MDBs) Working Group on gender for the first time in Africa.



Content provided by African Development Bank

gettyimages-870006586-594×594 (1)

Global Gender Summit 2019: “Put prejudice behind us and give women access to finance” says Akinwumi Adesina

“What a man can do, a woman can do just as well,” Jeannette Kagame, First Lady of Rwanda



“History will judge us if we don’t work together to take action now,” Chief Executive Officer of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu



Kigali, Rwanda, 26 November, 2019 – “Investments in gender equality are critical to realizing demographic dividend, but we need to ensure that women have the tools to overcome the barriers they face,” First Lady of Rwanda, Jeannette Kagame told participants at a panel at the Global Gender Summit in Kigali on Monday.



The panel, made up of First Ladies Kagame, Margaret Kenyatta, ministers and development experts, observed that too many women and girls still face barriers to basic rights, particularly access to labour market opportunities.



Rwanda’s First Lady recalled the role women played following the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi, where a number of families were wiped out, with women in many cases being the ones catering for families.



“What a man can do, a woman can do just as well,” she added.



She described the Summit as an important platform to highlight issues of women equality. 



Rwanda has implemented gender several inclusive programs, which has enhanced economic equality in a country where women political participation has grown to 61% percent.



First Lady Kenyatta called for the removal of institutional barriers to accelerate women’s economic empowerment, “It has become urgent for Africa to translate its demographic dividend into viable potential.” 



“This is the spirit of Africa’s vision to accelerate its path to sustainable socio-economic development. Our collective commitment to ‘leave no one behind’ is a new chapter in our struggle towards achieving gender equality.”



The panel heard that impediments to gender equality include lack of access to credit, low representation in decision making positions, lack of control over productive land and lack of financial control to make spending decisions on education and health.



Minister of Solidarity, Social Development, Equality and Family Jamila El Moussali of Morocco, shared experiences from Morocco where policies have been introduced to increase women&#8217;s political and economic participation.



The Chief Executive Officer of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu, called on stakeholders to come together to leverage each other’s strengths “translate women dreams into reality. History will judge us if we don’t work together to take action now.”



The African Development Bank and the government of Rwanda are hosting the Global Gender Summit from 25 to 27 November in Kigali. The Summit is being organised by the Multilateral Development Banks’ (MDBs) Working Group on gender for the first time in Africa.



Content provided by the African Development Bank

VW_GlobalGenderSummit_2019

First ladies’ panel seeks urgent policies to translate Africa’s demographic dividend into viable potential

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1110" height="601" src="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Java-Foods-1110x601.png" alt="" class="wp-image-350844" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Java-Foods-1110x601.png 1110w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Java-Foods-300x162.png 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Java-Foods-820x444.png 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Java-Foods-768x416.png 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Java-Foods-696x377.png 696w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Java-Foods-1068x578.png 1068w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Java-Foods-776x420.png 776w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Java-Foods.png 1290w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px" /></figure>



By Mariam Yinusa and Edward Mabaya, Principal Economist and Manager, respectively, in the Agribusiness Development Division of the African Development Bank.



Monica Musonda, CEO of Zambian food processing company <a href="https://java-foods.com/">Java Foods</a>, certainly faced hurdles in her rise
to the top, but she overcame them. 



“Although the barriers to entry for
women can be frustrating, they are often basic and relatively easy to resolve,”
she said, playing down her struggles. “My
climb up the agribusiness ladder has been challenging but definitely
worthwhile.” 



Musonda, whose company produces
affordable and nutritious food snacks made from local ingredients, is one of just
a handful of female agripreneurs who have <a href="http://www.lionessesofafrica.com/blog/2017/5/14/monica-musonda-founder-of-java-foods-zambia-wins-the-african-agribusiness-entrepreneur-of-the-year-award-2017">successfully broken through the
proverbial glass ceiling in Africa’s agribusiness</a> industry. 



Women are
the backbone of Africa’s agricultural sector. From farm to fork, African women
are players along the entire agricultural value chain, be it as farmers,
livestock breeders, processors, traders, workers, entrepreneurs or consumers. While
their influence on the continent’s growing agribusiness industry is undeniable,
more solutions are needed to address the gender-specific challenges they face to
boost their participation. 



The average
African woman is a budding entrepreneur either by choice or by circumstance.
According to the &nbsp;<a href="https://www.gemconsortium.org/report/gem-20162017-womens-entrepreneurship-report">Global
Entrepreneurship Monitor Women’s Report 2016/17</a>,
the continent has the highest percentage of female entrepreneurs in the world,
with one in four women starting or managing a business. The agribusiness
industry is often the natural focus of this entrepreneurial drive. 



Across the
continent, women dominate as primary processors post-harvest, as traders with
bustling market stalls, as owners of fast food restaurants and with
increasingly frequency as manufacturers of packaged ready-to-eat food products.
Yet despite this dynamism, female-led agribusinesses tend to remain small,
fragmented and informal in nature. They struggle to sustain and scale-up their
agribusinesses into well-organized profitable enterprises.



Admittedly,
the challenging business environment in many African countries including poor
infrastructure and unreliable legal and regulatory systems affects all business
activities of both men and women. However, in addition women-led businesses must
also grapple with a number of gender-specific constraints, inhibiting their
expansion into more lucrative market segments.



Firstly, African women often lack the
technical know-how. &nbsp;Despite the gains in
female education on the continent, highly productive agribusinesses require
specialized vocational and technical skills in fields such as food safety, food
conservation, packaging and product certification which many African women do
not readily possess.



Access to
finance is the most frequently cited obstacle by African SMEs. Women
entrepreneurs face multiple difficulties in securing funding mainly due to lack
of collateral in the form of land and other tangible assets and a high-risk
perception. According to the African Development Bank, an estimated $42 billion
financing gap exists for African women across business value chains, including
$15.6 billion in agriculture alone. Women are forced to rely on personal
savings and family loans which are rarely enough to fund their businesses to
scale.



Thirdly, socio-cultural barriers and
stereotypes persist. African women remain the primary caregivers in families
meaning that managing those responsibilities while growing a thriving business
can become a difficult balancing act.



Over the last two decades, many
governments and development institutions have rolled out programs to promote
access to finance, agricultural inputs and provide technical support and
business training to female agripreneurs. The African Development Bank recently
set up the <a href="https://www.afdb.org/en/topics-and-sectors/initiatives-partnerships/afawa-affirmative-finance-action-for-women-in-africa">Affirmative Finance Action for Women
in Africa (AFAWA)</a>, a bold pan-African initiative to bridge the financing gap
facing women. It adopts a three-pronged approach centered on improving access
to finance, providing technical assistance and strengthening the enabling
environment.



It often
takes very little to make a difference. The capital injection required by the
majority of female led SME agribusinesses on the continent is typically less
than $50,000. And women have consistently proven to be more credit-worthy than
men, usually paying back loans within agreed timeframes. Successful solutions
by women for women such as microfinance and saving groups, peer-to-peer
training and information sharing should also be reinforced and taken to scale.



More of such initiatives are urgently
needed across the continent. Solutions must be based on in-depth engagement
with the women business owners themselves to properly understand their
frustrations and needs. Tailored programs designed to specifically address
these pain points are critical. The <a href="https://www.afdb.org/en/news-and-events/events/global-gender-summit-global-gender-summit">Global Gender Summit</a> is a timely opportunity to
drive this forward.



Women are central for Africa’s agricultural transformation to be successful, sustainable and inclusive. More African female agripreneurs must be supported to grow and progressively transition into the business segments of agricultural value chains which are most profitable. It has been proven time and time again that when African women thrive the entire society shares in those dividends.

Java Foods

Op-Ed: Getting women in the driver’s seat of Africa’s agribusiness revolution

By Morsy Hanan



In many ways, Africa needs trade and investment even more
than it needs development aid. This is reflected by the African Development
Bank’s commitment to explore all the possible options of mobilising domestic
resources. 



Africa’s financing needs will remain very
large over the next few decades. Both public and private capital formation will
be necessary to pursue the necessary structural transformation of African
economies into industrial and post-industrial societies. 



Governments, of course, remain critical in
sustaining investment in Africa in the coming decades, and external debt
financing is key to supporting basic infrastructure construction and the
provision of standard public services.



Domestic resource mobilization allows Africa to move
towards financial autonomy. In 2015 African tax revenues had more than doubled
in ten years to over $500 billion, almost 3 times higher than the total value
of foreign direct investment, overseas development aid, and remittances. 



However Africa can do even better. Much can be done by
improving tax administration. For instance the Republic of Togo’s tax reforms
increased its tax revenues to GDP ratio from 16% in 2010 to 20% in 2015 thanks
to the technical and financial advice of the African Development Bank. 



The composition of total financial flows to Africa
reflects the dynamism of its domestic markets. In 2017, total financial inflows
are projected were around $180 billion. Remittances were $66.2 billion, foreign
direct investment inflows were $57.5 billion, supported mainly by greenfield
investments from emerging economies. Tax revenue remains the most important
source of domestic financing in African countries but has slowed down with the
decline in commodity prices. 



There is a clear need to continue with the
policy of developing innovative tools to finance development, concentrating on
deepening domestic capital markets and on crowding in private capital through
risk mitigation instruments to unlock resources that can replace debt. 



Developing more risk-sharing instruments
with the private sector through pre-financing of future tax revenues,
establishing sovereign insurance contracts, and leveraging government and
multilateral guarantees, will contribute to significant de-risking of private
investments in capital intensive projects. 



Private sector participation in infrastructure
development must be increased by putting in place the required regulatory
frameworks and scaling up public–private partnerships. The Bank and other
international financial institutions can help to increase risk-sharing with the
private sector and reduce public borrowing needs. Contingent debt, where
repayment is conditional on the achievement of certain project milestones, can
improve incentives for government officials and private corporations to
complete major projects without delays or quality control problems.
Multilateral lenders can provide benchmarks and guidelines, as well as low-risk
financing tranches for long-term projects. 



The Bank can help develop guidelines and
international best practice principles for the design and implementation of
such new instruments to strengthen transparency, protect borrowers against
commodity price downturns, and ensure competitive tender processes across
infrastructure suppliers to optimize the cost of project development. 



It can also exploit mutually advantageous
exchanges, such as “natural resources for infrastructure” bargains with
traditional or new bilateral lenders. Resources for infrastructure swaps, where
natural resources revenues are used as collateral or direct repayment
instruments in the financing of large infrastructure projects, can be useful in
fostering economic diversification and in reducing the need for direct foreign
borrowing. 



The Bank is also exploring the use of
diaspora bonds to crowd in private sector funds and mobilise domestic and
national resources. Such bonds have already been issued by several African
countries, such as Ethiopia and Nigeria, to tap the increasing flow of
remittances from migrants in advanced economies, and to channel these funds
toward infrastructure investments. The Bank could, for example, provide
guarantees or co-finance part of the return on these bonds to make them
attractive to emigrants and to ensure that they finance efficient investment
projects.



This
is the key to economic transformation – innovation in resource mobilisation and
international investments, presenting a legacy of growth coupled with the
confidence of a new generation of young African entrepreneurs and leaders with
new vision and ambition, incentivised and encouraged to invest and engage in
enterprise and innovation. 



A
transformed Africa cannot be dependent upon commodities, or upon foreign aid,
or on handouts of any kind. Africa is quite simply a great investment, a
collective deal with better numbers and potential than a lot of other
investment packages in developed countries. 



It
no longer takes an act of imagination to grasp this. It can be seen in the
growing diversification and industrialisation of African economies and the
accelerating progress made towards the achievement of the High 5s. 



It
can be seen in the inspirational Africa Investment Forum, where these and many
other ideas and innovations can be appreciated at close hand in the
negotiations and bargaining that characterise good deal making on behalf of
Africa.

Op-Ed: Raising capital to finance development – the AfDB as innovator and catalyst

By
Dr. Jennifer Blanke



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Jennifer-AfDB-683x1024.jpg" alt="In much of Africa, 60% or more of the working population is employed in agriculture. And yet agriculture only contributes about one quarter of Africa’s GDP, with the continent mainly producing and exporting raw products and importing significant amounts of processed food." class="wp-image-349733" width="574" height="861" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Jennifer-AfDB-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Jennifer-AfDB-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Jennifer-AfDB-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Jennifer-AfDB-696x1044.jpg 696w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Jennifer-AfDB-1068x1602.jpg 1068w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Jennifer-AfDB-280x420.jpg 280w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Jennifer-AfDB.jpg 1365w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 574px) 100vw, 574px" /></figure></div>



This week, business leaders, project developers, development finance professionals, institutional investors representing pension and sovereign wealth funds, as well as policymakers meet in Johannesburg for the second Africa Investment Forum convened by the African Development Bank. 



The Forum is an innovative marketplace&nbsp;&#8211; dedicated to
moving development ideas and projects to bankability, to mobilizing capital,
and to accelerating the financial closure of deals that can improve the lives
of millions of people. Among other things, the Africa Investment Forum has the
potential to accelerate Africa’s agricultural transformation.



In much of Africa,
60% or more of the working population is employed in agriculture. And yet
agriculture only contributes about one quarter of Africa’s GDP, with the
continent mainly producing and exporting raw products and importing significant
amounts of processed food. The sector punches below its weight. And yet there
is huge potential for income and job creation if Africa can increase productivity
and move up the value chain to produce more, higher value-added, processed
food. 



The bottom line is
that African agriculture must move from being a “way of life” to a resilient,
sustainable business sector that creates prosperity, jobs, as well as improves
incomes and livelihoods of rural people. The Africa Investment Forum convenes
players in the agriculture and agribusiness sector who come together to roll up
their sleeves and explore business and investment opportunities. The Forum’s concrete
“boardroom discussions” connect investment projects with investors. It brings
together entrepreneurs, project developers and investors interested in
agriculture to make deals. 



Last year’s Africa Investment
Forum saw nearly 2,000 participants from 87 nations gather to discuss more than
$46 billion-worth of boardroom deals. One of the highlights was a transaction
involving Ghana Cocoa Board, designed to help Ghana’s cocoa sector – which
employs some 800,000 farm families, producing crops worth about $2 billion in
foreign exchange annually. The presence of Ghana’s Head of State, H.E. Nana
Akufo-Addo, in the boardroom session galvanized investor interest in a sector
so important for Ghana, one of the world’s top cocoa exporters. 



This year, Ghana’s Cocoa Board
returns to the Forum to sign a Facility Agreement for a $600 million syndicated
receivables-backed term loan aimed at enhancing Ghana’s cocoa productivity. The investment deal – also involving Credit Suisse as well as
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited &#8211; was born out of the Africa
Investment Forum.



This
year’s Forum will also see a focus on Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones,
or SAPZs. There&nbsp; is often little
investment interest in Africa’s rural areas, due to a lack of transport, energy
and other critical infrastructure. SAPZs are a solution to connect rural areas
to regional and global supply chains, so that
they can produce higher value-added processed goods in areas of higher agricultural
productivity. SAPZs gather most or all the elements of an agricultural value
chain in one area: from farm to fork. Aside from attracting investment, SAPZs
are also important from a development perspective because that they help to
raise rural incomes and create job opportunities for Africa’s surging youth
population. 



When
properly designed and well executed, SAPZs are powerful tools toward removing
barriers to access to technology, infrastructure and resources to Africa’s
industrialization. By increasing the transformation of products like cotton,
cashew nuts, cocoa and livestock, for example, SAPZs have the potential to
improve Africa’s overall trade balance. Many African countries have committed
to integrating SAPZs in their national development strategies – the Africa
Investment Forum will showcase SAPZ plans out of Benin, Chad, Ethiopia, Gabon,
Senegal, South Africa, and Togo.&nbsp;



The
Bank provides support to attract investors in the agro processing space via
fiscal, regulatory, and infrastructure incentives.&nbsp;To make the
concentrated, all-in-one-place SAPZ activity work smoothly, innovative
companies pursuing SAPZs in Africa need investors. 



Investor
opportunity abounds, boosted by prospects of an integrated African market via the Continental Free Trade
Agreement (AfCFTA),
which promises to usher in the economies of
scale needed for SAPZ-produced
or processed goods to participate in strong
regional agriculture value chains catering to &nbsp;a population of more than a billion people with
a combined GDP of $3.4 trillion. This
can then provide a springboard to global markets. &nbsp;



We
see this vision for Ethiopia, a nation embracing the SAPZ concept with support
from African Development Bank and other partners, to promote the advancement of
Ethiopian crops like oilseed, wheat and maize, beef and dairy livestock and of
course, its world-famous coffee. With SAPZ projects launched in Ethiopia, the
impact is expected to translate into $1.5 billion in private sector investment
and the creation of 400,000 jobs – with 70% of them targeting youth. 



We often hear the
clichés about ‘Africa Rising’ and Africa being the ‘new hot spot’ for
investment. Yet Africa has not suddenly appeared! It is home to more than half
of the world’s fertile, yet largely uncultivated, cropland. African agriculture
is a big business opportunity – by most estimates, the continent’s food and
agribusiness market will be worth one trillion US dollars by 2030. Yet this
requires investment.



Only $7 billion per
year is invested in Africa’s agriculture sector – that needs to rise to about
$45 billion per year to harness agriculture’s power and move Africa up the
value chain to create jobs and revenue. It is time to put investment money
where many mouths have been talking about Africa’s ‘Green Revolution,’ for
years. It is time to equip Africa with the financial tools to grow into the
reliable food production resource that feeds Africa as well as ensures that
Africa does its part to feed the world. It is time for Africa to move from an
aid paradigm to an investment paradigm &#8211; this is what we are doing this week at
the Africa Investment Forum, in Johannesburg, South Africa.



Dr. Jennifer Blanke is the
African Development Bank Group’s Vice President for Agriculture, Human and
Social Development.

Op-Ed: The #AfricaInvestmentForum: an accelerator for Africa’s agricultural transformation

Johannesburg, South Africa, 12 November 2019&nbsp;&#8211; The African Development Bank, Credit Suisse AG, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited and Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) signed a $600 million syndicated receivables-backed term loan on Tuesday, to boost cocoa productivity in Ghana &#8211; the world’s second-largest cocoa producer.



Ghanaian President&nbsp;Nana&nbsp;Addo&nbsp;Dankwa Akufo-Addo,&nbsp;the President of the African Development Bank Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina, senior officials from Credit Suisse and ICBC, oversaw the signing of the facility, at a ceremony held on the second day of the 2019 Africa Investment Forum.



The multi-million dollar agreement is a milestone for the Bank-convened Africa Investment Forum, a transactional platform dedicated to transforming the continent’s investment and development agenda, which kicked off in Sandton City Johannesburg on Monday.



The COCOBOD transaction was launched at the&nbsp;Africa Investment Forum&nbsp;in 2018, and a year later, the signing is a demonstration of the Forum’s ability to raise much needed financing, including from international commercial financiers, for projects in Africa. Prior to the agreement, COCOBOD did not have access to long-term debt capital.



At a press conference following the signing, President&nbsp;Akufo-Addo said the agreement would help to ensure higher incomes for Ghana’s cocoa farmers.



“It was critical that we find a mechanism for scaling up the value chain for our farmers and that is where the Bank came in,” Akufo Addo said. “We see this agreement as a turning point and…to what is possible on this continent.”



The Bank,&nbsp;as Original DFI Lender and Initial Mandated Lead Arranger, is partnering with&nbsp;Credit Suisse as&nbsp;Original Commercial Lender, Global Commercial Coordinator, Co-



Mandated Lead Arranger. Credit Suisse is also acting as Joint Commercial Underwriter and Bookrunner&nbsp;to structure and fund a&nbsp;dual-tranche facility comprising a $250 million, 7-year DFI tranche with the Bank, as well as a $350 million, 5-year commercial tranche.



The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited London Branch joined as an Original Commercial Lender, Co-Mandated Lead Arranger and Joint Commercial Underwriter and Bookrunner ahead of syndication.



Syndication of the facility is underway.



Making sure that Africa gets to the top of the value chain is one of the African Development’s Bank’s top priorities, President Adesina said, adding that Africa could become a global hub for cocoa and cocoa-based products.



“All cocoa producing countries will get similar support (from the Bank). Ghana is bankable, cocoa is bankable and of course Africa is bankable,” Adesina said.



COCOBOD will use the facility to raise cocoa yields per hectare and increase Ghana’s overall production. These include financial interventions to sustainably increase cocoa plant fertility, improving irrigation systems, rehabilitating aged and disease-infected farms. The funds will also help increase warehouse capacity and provide support to local cocoa-processing companies.



Signing&nbsp;for Credit Suisse,&nbsp;Madthav Patki&nbsp;said the “landmark” transaction would facilitate future long-term investment in the Ghanaian cocoa sector.



“This is a positive contribution to a key sector of Ghana’s economy. “It is a moment of tremendous pride…This is what the Africa Investment Forum is all about,” Patki said. He also commended the Bank’s signature expertise in financial instruments, that enabled them to leverage financing for the deal.



The Africa Investment Forum, an initiative of the African Development Bank is an innovative, multi-stakeholder transactional marketplace, dedicated to raising capital, advancing projects to bankable stage, and accelerating financial closure of deals.&nbsp;



Ghana’s cocoa sector employs some 800,000 rural families and produces crops worth about $2 billion in foreign exchange annually.&nbsp;COCOBOD&nbsp;is a fully state-owned company solely&nbsp;responsible for Ghana’s cocoa industry, controlling the purchase, marketing and export of all cocoa beans produced in the country.

#AfricaInvestmentForum: Ghana’s COCOBOD signs historic $600 million cocoa deal

By Mariam Yinusa and Edward Mabaya are Principal Economist and Manager, respectively, in the Agribusiness Development Division of the African Development Bank. 



In
the past decade, a stroll along the aisles of any African supermarket is revealing:
there is a new wave of home-brewed brands that are fast becoming household
names. Products like Dangote rice from Nigeria, Akabanga pepper oil from Rwanda
and Tomoca coffee from Ethiopia attest to the gradual but persistent evolution
towards greater agro-processing and value addition in the domestic agriculture
sector.



Africa’s
agribusiness sector is expected to reach $1 trillion by 2030, so there is certainly
cause for optimism. Consumer demand for food in Africa is growing at an
unprecedented rate. But what is fuelling this growth?



First,
size matters. At a population of 1.2 billion people, Africa is currently the
second most populous continent in the world, superseded only by Asia. According
to United Nations projections, Africa’s population could reach 2 billion by
2030 and 2.5 billion by 2050. This means that one in five consumers globally
will be African. 



Second, quality
counts. Sustained GDP growth rates in several countries across the continent have
translated into rising incomes for some segments of the population. According
to the African Development Bank’s African Economic Outlook Report, the middle-class population is expected is projected
to reach 1.1 billion by 2060 which will make up 42% of the population. The
average African middle-class consumer is becoming relatively more affluent,
sophisticated and discerning in the food they choose to buy and eat. Concerns
about price/quality trade-offs, convenience, nutritional content and food
safety, amongst others, are central in their minds.



Third, concentration can
be powerful. Although most growth poles are small
to medium cities, megacities with populations of over 10 million inhabitants,
such as Cairo, Lagos and Kinshasa, have gained increased prominence. These
metropoles offer ripe opportunities for investment, as a result of the triad of
high consumption, concentrated spending power, and agglomeration (i.e. lower and
fixed distribution costs). 



On
the supply side, there is significant untapped potential. Over 60% of the world’s
uncultivated arable land is in Africa. 



Policy
makers recognize the huge opportunities these trends present and are making concerted
efforts to create and maintain an enabling business environment to attract both
local and foreign investors. The African Development Bank is at the forefront of
this coalition of the “ready” to transform African agriculture.



Under
its Feed Africa Strategy, the Bank is supporting its regional member countries
to address both demand and supply side constraints along agricultural value
chains. Through initiatives like the Technologies for African Agricultural
Transformation (TAAT), the Bank is boosting historically low yields in priority
commodities such as rice, maize and soybeans. In Sudan for example, the TAAT
supported heat-resistant wheat variety has increased wheat self-sufficiency
from 24% in 2016 to 45% in the 2018-2019 farming season. At the same time, Special
Agro-Processing Zones (SAPZs) are attracting both hard and soft infrastructure
and creating value addition to increased agricultural produce. Together with partners including Korea-Exim Bank and the European
Investment Bank, the AfDB has invested USD 120 million in SAPZs in Guinea,
Ethiopia and Togo which will significantly expand local agro-processing
activities along numerous agricultural value chain.



Along
with these key investments in Africa’s agricultural value chains, the continent
is starting to consolidate its wins. A case in point is regional integration,
exemplified by the recent ratification of the African Continental Free Trade
Area (AfCFTA), which has the potential to make Africa the
largest free trade area in the world.



Agribusiness
has already caught the eye of investors. Last year, it was one of the main
attractions at the inaugural Africa Investment Forum conference, which is
becoming the continent’s premier marketplace for global and pan-African
business leaders, and an innovator in accelerating deals.



Agriculture
was one of the nine sectors that attracted investor interest at the 2018 Africa
Investment Forum. The sector held its own against big hitters like financial
services, infrastructure, energy, and ICT. &nbsp;One such transaction was the Ghana Cocoa Board
(COCOBOD) deal in which USD $600 million loan financing was mobilized from the
AfDB and other investors to boost annual production of cocoa beans from 880,000
tons to 1.5 million tons. &nbsp;Within the
next three years, the project is also expected to promote growth in the domestic
cocoa value chain by increasing processing capacity two-fold from 220,000 tons
to 450,000 tons per annum.



Africa’s expanding consumer base will
undoubtedly lead to more spending on food and beverages on the continent. This
should be enlightening for would-be investors in food processing and value
addition ventures. 



The
front door to these opportunities is the Africa Investment Forum, scheduled for
November 11-13 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Op-Ed: Agribusiness: Africa’s new investment frontier

By Bajabulile “Swazi” Tshabalala, Vice President for Finance and Chief Finance Officer for the African Development Bank Group



2019 will be one
of the defining moments in Africa’s investment landscape. Bigger, bolder and
more ambitious projects await delegates and investors as we prepare to kick off
the second edition of the Africa Investment Forum. 



A multi-billion-dollar
petrochemical project in Egypt and the Kigali Innovation City Project in
Rwanda, are only two of the projects which featured during the maiden edition
of the Forum held in November last year.



Alongside a greater
emphasis on helping transactions reach bankability and in pushing ahead the
regional integration agenda, project sponsors and investors continue to flock
to our digital<a href="https://platform.africainvestmentforum.com/"> Platform</a>,
with <a>interest already shown in 151 projects from 34
African countries worth $112.4 billion.</a>



Following the immense
success of the inaugural edition held in November 2018, the Africa Investment
Forum, a brainchild of the African Development Bank, is becoming a firm fixture
in the calendars of the global investment community.<a> The
2018 event saw close to 2,000 participants, representing 83 countries, out of
which some 277 were delegates from development finance institutions that are
active in Africa. </a>



The 2018 Forum
was instrumental in showcasing up to 49 different transactions at different
stages of development and with a total value of $40 billion. These projects were presented to a
large audience of investors and financiers. Judging from the interest
generated, the Forum promises to play a major role in catalyzing investment
flows into Africa, so instrumental in moving the continent forward into the future.



Some of the key projects for which the
Forum is expected to play an invaluable role, include the Desert to Power
initiative – that aims to provide 10,000 MW of solar-generated electricity to 250 million people
across the Sahel. Projects like the Inga Hydro-electric
scheme in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and other major cross-border
infrastructure projects in road and rail, are all highly transformative projects
with important social and economic impacts.



The timing of
the coming into being of the Forum is fortuitous, coming on the heels of the Africa
Continental Free Trade Area and the Single African Air Transport Market,
ratified by the majority of African Union members. 



New investments made
possible through the Africa Investment Forum have the potential to spur an
explosion in trade, contribute to Africa’s re-industrialization and promote
cross-border regional economic integration. 



Indeed, while
the platform continues to ramp up and grow, the Forum offered some very
important lessons. In particular, additional resources are required to
adequately prepare projects which are crucial for Africa’s development. Well-prepared
projects minimize negative environmental and social issues, while maximizing
development and economic outcomes, thus contributing to enhanced bankability. This
notwithstanding, projects originated through the Forum will benefit from the Bank’s
wider ecosystem and the numerous instruments and partnerships with other development
finance institutions which will help transform project ideas into actual investments
that create jobs and economic opportunities on the ground. 



While the Forum
is a practical and transactional platform for project deals and potential
financers to interact, it has also become a staging post for new financing
product innovations that compliment and contribute to de-risking and making
investment opportunities more attractive for investors. Examples of recent
innovations in this regard include the co-guarantee platform that was
established in 2018 by the African Development Bank alongside its partners the Islamic
Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC), African
Trade Insurance Agency (ATI) and GuarantCo. 



As we prepare again
to put Africa on global investors’ radars, I would like to see tied to the
Forum more activities with the potential of bringing increased dynamism and
depth to African domestic capital markets; initiatives that help mobilize African
domestic resources into projects coming to this platform for funding. 



Beyond this, there
are opportunities for the African diaspora whose annual remittances to the
continent now top $60 billion a year, making it an immense pool of money that
can actively participate in Africa’s development story and benefit from the
myriad investment opportunities. 



I would like to
see diaspora bond issuances and/or collective investment vehicles discussed and
presented at the Forum, as they can represent significant financing that can be
put to work for the benefit of Africa’s development.



I also strongly
encourage and welcome greater participation of the South African institutional
investment management industry.



We look forward to a successful Forum and to greater acceleration of the development of the continent.

Africa Investment Forum

Op-Ed: Why global and Pan African investors need to set their sight on the 2019 #AfricaInvestmentForum

By: Mateus Magala, Vice-President of Corporate Services and Human Resources at the African Development Bank



Economic reforms, a burgeoning middle class and regional diversity against the background of the new African Continental Free Trade Area &#8211; are making Africa’s Portuguese-speaking countries a hotspot for investor interest. Additionally, new tools – such as the Development Finance Compact for Lusophone Africa – give investors and lenders more comfort to enter into these markets.



The six African countries called “PALOPs”, their
Portuguese acronym – Angola, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea,
Mozambique and São Tomé e Principe – are very diverse. They range from
Equatorial Guinea, Africa’s richest country per capita, to lower income economies;
from Angola’s and Mozambique’s populations of over 30 million to Cabo Verde’s
and São Tomé’s, of less than one million; and from southeastern Africa to the
northwest of the continent.



These states also share important traits. They have a
common heritage and language. As independent states, they have fostered trade ties
with Portugal and Brazil, among others.&nbsp;
And, most importantly for our current consideration they have all
recognized that they must do more to unleash the potential of the private
sector in their countries.&nbsp; The private
sector here faces constraints, ranging from lack of affordable financing to
difficulties in project preparation. The good news is that the PALOP governments
are determined to tackle these issues – with the help of their partners, such
as the African Development Bank. 



In November 2017, Bank President Akinwumi Adesina
visited Lisbon for discussions on how Portugal and the Bank could work in a more
integrated manner. Out of this meeting emerged a vision for a new partnership,
one that is open to other partners: the Development Finance Compact for
Lusophone Africa.&nbsp; Signed at the November
2018 Africa Investment Forum, its goal is very simple: to accelerate the
diversified, sustainable and inclusive growth of the private sector in the six
PALOPs. And it is completely focused on transactions to deliver practical
results on the ground. 



How does the Lusophone Compact propose to do this? Put simply, it is
results-based and focused on two types of interventions: financing and risk
mitigation from the partners for specific private sector and public-private
sector partnership (PPP) investments in the PALOPs; and technical assistance
projects that enable the private sector or specific investments, such as project
preparation and access to finance. It is operationalized through
country-specific Compacts, with concrete targets, that have been signed for
each PALOP. 



For its part, Portugal
has made available €400 million in guarantees in 2019 to back Bank financing
for private sector and PPP projects in the PALOPs.&nbsp; And the Bank is contributing its own
financing as well as resources for the administration of the Lusophone
Compact.&nbsp; Additionally, it is important
to stress that the PALOPs themselves are equal partners in this initiative:
they have a responsibility to work on enabling the private sector investments
in their countries, and the Compact also seeks to leverage intra-PALOP
investments and sharing of best practices.&nbsp;
Finally, we are encouraged that other states and development finance
providers want to join or partner with the Lusophone Compact.



This brings me back to
the initial point: now is the time to invest in Lusophone Africa. 



Angola and Equatorial
Guinea have both embarked on ambitious programs to diversify their economies
away from natural resources. Mozambique, which is beginning to receive massive
investments related to the natural gas sector, also recognizes the need to grow
sectors like agribusiness and industry, to increase employment.&nbsp; Cabo Verde, already a middle-income country,
is seeking to diversify its economy too – attracting new types of tourists
while also growing its fishing and agribusiness sectors. São Tomé e Principe
and Guinea-Bissau, members of the Alliance of Small Island States, seek
sustainable investments that both promote growth and deal with their exposure
to climate change, including through the so-called “blue economy”.&nbsp; &nbsp;



All of these countries
are determined to increase trade, both among themselves and within their
regions, which include Africa’s largest economies. 



That is why the PALOP’s
are eyeing the 2019 Africa Investment Forum – the unique investment marketplace
for regional investments, pioneered by the African Development Bank last year.



A specific panel on Investing
in Lusophone Africa at this year’s Forum will shine the spotlight on these
opportunities. And, just as last year, numerous Board Room sessions will
involve projects in the PALOPs – including at least four that are eligible
under the Lusophone Compact. 



The African Development Bank is proud to be part of
this new dawn for the continent’s Portuguese-speaking economies. And we invite
you to join us.

Op-Ed: It’s time to invest in Portuguese-speaking African countries, here’s why

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) &#8211; The U.S.-China trade war and uncertainty over Brexit pose risks to Africa’s economic prospects that are “increasing by the day,” the head of the African Development Bank (AfDB) told Reuters.



The trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies has roiled global markets and unnerved investors as it stretches into its second year with no end in sight.



Britain, meanwhile, appears to be on course to leave the European Union on Oct. 31 without a transition deal, which economists fear could severely disrupt trade flows.



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Akinwumi Adesina, president of the AfDB, said the bank could review its economic growth projection for Africa &#8211; of 4% in 2019 and 4.1% in 2020 &#8211; if global external shocks accelerate.



“We normally revise this depending on global external shocks that could slowdown global growth and these issues are increasing by the day,” Adesina told Reuters late on Saturday on the sidelines of the Southern African Development Community meeting in Tanzania’s commercial capital Dar es Salaam.



&nbsp;“You have Brexit, you also have the recent challenges between Pakistan and India that have flared off there, plus you have the trade war between the United States and China. All these things can combine to slow global growth, with implications for African countries.”



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The bank chief said African nations need to boost trade with each other and add value to agricultural produce to cushion the impact of external shocks.



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; “I think the trade war has significantly impacted economic growth prospects in China and therefore import demand from China has fallen significantly and so demand for products and raw materials from Africa will only fall even further,” he said.



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; “It will also have another effect with regard to China’s own outward-bound investments on the continent,” he added, saying these could also affect official development assistance.



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Adesina said a continental free-trade zone launched last month, the African Continental Free Trade Area, could help speed up economic growth and development, but African nations needed to remove non-tariff barriers to boost trade.



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; “The countries that have always been facing lower volatilities have always been the ones that do a lot more in terms of regional trade and do not rely on exports of raw materials,” Adesina said.



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; “The challenges cannot be solved unless all the barriers come down. Free mobility of labour, free mobility of capital and free mobility of people.”



Additional reporting and writing by Fumbuka Ng&#8217;wanakilala; Editing by George Obulutsa and Mark Potter

Africa development bank says risks to growth ‘increasing by the day’, what you need to know

NAIROBI (Reuters) &#8211; The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a $98 million financial package for Ethiopia for a road transport corridor project to neighbouring Djibouti, it said late on Tuesday.



The project’s total cost is $255 million, comprising an AfDB grant of $98 million to Ethiopia’s government and an AfDB grant of $5.3 million to Djibouti’s government, plus a co-financing contribution of $151 million by Ethiopia’s government.



“The project will enhance trade by significantly reducing transport costs, thereby accelerating the economic growth of Ethiopia and its neighbour Djibouti, as it is part of the main import-export corridor,” the AfDB said in a statement.



Reporting by Omar Mohammed; Writing by Maggie Fick; Editing by Duncan Miriri

African Development Bank