Business
Maureen Chigbo, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt
THE five-day marathon annual meetings of the African Development Bank, AfDB, came to a close on Friday, May 26, with the board of governors of the bank commending the various bold actions taken by the leadership of the bank under President Akinwumi Adesina to drive economic development in the continent.
The board of governors, representing member countries of the African Development Bank and State participants of the African Development Fund, made the commendation in their communique after the 2023 Annual Meetings from 22nd to 26th May in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, under the chairmanship of Hassan Abdalla, governor of the Central Bank of Egypt, and chairperson of the boards of governors.
The 34-point communique of the 58th annual meeting of the board of governors of the AfDB and the 49th annual meeting of the board of governors of the African Development Fund, ADF, congratulated the bank on its recognition by the global campaign on aid transparency, Publish What You Fund, as the most transparent development institution in the world for its sovereign operations and for achieving the highest score ever recorded for transparency on sovereign operations; and the ranking of the ADF as the second best concessional financial institution in the world by the Center for Global Development, CGD, in 2021.
The governors also praised the Bank for its strong and prudent financial and risk management that have ensured its continued triple-A credit rating by all the major global credit rating agencies; as well as its leadership in stretching its balance sheets using innovative market risk transfer approaches, including the use of synthetic securitization and portfolio risk insurance. We look forward to future discussions on how to optimize the Bank’s use of its resources as proposed by the G-20 Capital Adequacy Framework recommendations
They were equally satisfied that the bank’s leadership addressed with due consideration issues of cybersecurity risks, digitalization and technology access and transfer, especially intellectual property rights protected technologies and processes, and the development of the research and development ecosystem through the establishment of the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation, APTF, approved by the board of directors and call for its speedy and full operationalisation.
Realnews reports that the APTF was launched on Monday. May 22 and is expected to become operational by July.
They also commended the Bank Group for achieving $1billion of financing through its Affirmative Finance Facility for Women in Africa, AFAWA, and mainstreaming gender across all its operations, including through strengthened measurement of gender impacts, reporting and monitoring. “We call on the Bank Group to go further to support RMCs in collecting gender-disaggregated data to increase women’s economic empowerment and access to finance,” the communique said.
The governors note the recommendations of the Heads of State and Governors during the high-level Presidential Dialogue on “The Changing Global Financial Architecture and the Role of Multilateral Development Banks” and called on the Board of Directors to report on progress made at the next Annual Meetings on the evolving needs of Africa and how the Bank Group’s vision, mission, incentives, business models, and financial capacity will address these challenges. “In the context of the current international debate, including with rating agencies, we urge the Bank Group to continue to develop innovative approaches for mobilizing significantly more resources for Africa, in line with the recommendation of the G-20 Working Group on the Capital Adequacy Framework, especially through leveraging more investments and financing from the private sector, working to increase domestic resource mobilization in RMCs, optimizing its balance sheet, deepening its work and existing leadership on synthetic securitization and using guarantees and other market risk transfer instruments to leverage institutional investors.
“We welcome the Bank’s assessment that it is already in the process of implementing many of the recommendations and urge the Bank to continue its constructive and ambitious engagement with the CAF Review recommendations. We further call on the Bank Group to prepare and position itself well and more effectively within the global financial architecture, including through considering relevant reforms in the context of MDB evolution in the four priority areas of vision/mission, incentives, business models and financial capacity. A cross-cutting theme of MDB Evolution includes developing new approaches to mobilize private financing to complement public sector financing.
“We urge the Bank Group to integrate its commitment to evolution in the upcoming Ten-Year Strategy and to include a clear Results Management Framework that demonstrates the Bank’s contribution to the attainment of the SDGs. We also call on the Bank Group to strengthen its implementation model to increase efficiency and development impact, especially in LICs. Development efforts should be guided by the principle of equal partnerships, country ownership and best practices, tailored to national, regional and local needs and circumstances,” stated the communique which was read at the closing ceremony by Adesina, the president of the AFBD.
According to the communique, in the context of global calls for MDBs to update their business models to attract more private sector financing, in tandem with domestic resources mobilization, the governors commended the efforts of the Bank Group on the Africa Investment Forum (AIF) platform which helped to leverage significant interests to Africa in 2022. “We call for greater efforts by the founding partners and key stakeholders to strengthen the value proposition of the AIF, including improving its governance, and the development of a robust business plan for its governance and financial sustainability to be able to mobilize more private investments for Africa.
They also praised AFDB for its active support to the development of intra-African trade, including the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), in particular the support to the operationalization of its Secretariat. “The Bank’s strong commitment to financing transport infrastructure, in coordination with the European Union’s Global Gateway strategy, is noteworthy, in particular the investment interest expressed at the AIF for the Lagos-Abidjan Road corridor, amounting to $15.6 billion, and the investment interest expressed for the rail lines in East Africa linking Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi, amounting to $3.6 billion,” it said.The governors w
elcome the launch of the Alliance for Green Infrastructure, AGIA, by the Bank Group and several partners with the goal of greening Africa’s infrastructure and mobilizing $10 billion to cover the incremental costs of green, low-carbon and resilient infrastructure in the drive towards Net Zero in Africa and call for accelerated efforts towards its implementation.
Also, the acknowledged bank’s commitment to the Alliance for African Entrepreneurship and encouraged it to work with other multilateral and bilateral donors, local development banks, and private investors to develop an ecosystem conducive to entrepreneurs, innovation, and SMEs growth in Africa.
They commended the Bank Group for its global leadership within the MDBs in developing and spearheading innovative options, with technical support from the IMF, that could support voluntary channelling of Special Drawing Rights from developed countries to the most vulnerable countries, with due consideration to applicable national legal frameworks, including potentially through the Bank as a prescribed holder to provide greater financing to African economies for their economic recovery, and the achievement of the SDGThen g
The board of governors were satisfied with the board of directors, management, and staff of AfDB for “the operational and financial performance in 2022 under challenging circumstances; and welcome the unqualified opinion of the Bank Group’s external auditors on the financial statements ending 31st December 2022 and their confirmation of the effectiveness of the internal controls of the Bank Group.”
Those present at the meeting whose presence were deeply appreciated are Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, president of the Arab Republic of Egypt; Azali Assoumani, president of the Union of the Comoros and chairperson of the African Union; Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, president of the Republic of Zimbabwe; Philip Isdor Mpango, vice president of the United Republic of Tanzania, representing Samia Suluhu Hassan, president of the United Republic of Tanzania; Edouard Ngirente, prime minister of the Republic of Rwanda, representing Paul Kagame, president of the Republic of Rwanda; andGervais Ndirakobuca, prime Minister of the Republic of Burundi, representing Evariste Ndayishimiye, president of the Republic of Burundi.
The others are Hamse Abdi Barre, prime minister of the Federal Republic of Somalia, representing Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, president of the Federal Republic of Somalia; Moussa Mahamat, chairperson of the African Union Commission; Moustafa Madbouli, prime minister of the Arab Republic of Egypt;Staff Major General Khaled Fouda, governor of South Sinai Governorate; Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, minister of Industry and Advanced Technology of the United Arab Emirates and UAE Special Envoy for Climate Change and COP 28 President-Designate.
Realnews reports that the next Annual Meetings of the AFDB is scheduled to take place in Nairobi, Kenya from 27th to 31st May, 2024.
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Tags: African Development Fund Azali Assoumani Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa Maureen Chigbo
