Abidjan, April 25, 2022 – African Development Bank Group President Akinwumi Adesina wrapped up a three-day official visit to Washington, DC on Saturday. The visit, which took place alongside the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, included numerous bilateral meetings with African development stakeholders. Adesina garnered outspoken and unanimous support for the 16e replenishment of resources from the African Development Fund, the Bank Group’s concessional window that supports low-income African economies. Replenishment efforts continue until October, when partners are expected to announce their contributions.
In bilateral meetings, US Assistant Treasury Secretary Alexia Latortue said the African Development Fund was an essential part of Africa’s development package. She told the Bank President that the United States remains a strong and proud supporter of the Fund, which is strategically focused and delivers impact. Latortue applauded Adesina’s leadership in crafting the Bank’s bold emergency food production plan for Africa to avert the looming food crisis due to the Russian war in Ukraine and assured him of the partnership strong position of the US Treasury Department in this regard.
Adesina has received similar strong support for the replenishment of the African Development Fund from other partners, including the Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation, Matilda Ernkrans, Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, Norwegian Minister for International Development, Vicky Ford, British Minister for Africa and Paul Ryan, Irish Director of International Finance and Climate. They gave their strong support for the African Development Fund to be allowed to exit the capital markets in order to use its equity to raise more resources for the benefit of fragile and low-income states.
Adesina told shareholders that the impact of the African Development Fund on Africa, through their support, was massive and far-reaching. According to Swedish Minister Ernkrans, “The African Development Bank is doing an incredible job and we strongly support the Bank. Sweden supports the African Development Fund to leverage market resources to make more funds available to countries. You are doing an excellent job. »
During his meeting with the African Union Group of 15 Finance Ministers (F15), Adesina outlined the continent’s immediate challenges and the solutions being implemented to successfully address them. At the top of Adesina’s list are a plan to massively increase food production in the face of a looming global food crisis due to Russia’s war in Ukraine and the need to replenish the African Development Fund. in a more flexible and substantial way. Ministers agreed on a Joint Communique on Financing Africa’s Economic Resilience in Turbulent Times. They called for a substantial replenishment of the African Development Fund and for the Fund to be allowed to use its own funds to mobilize more resources from the international capital markets to meet the rapidly growing needs of countries in Africa.
Adesina showcased the innovative initiative of the African Development Bank Technologies for the transformation of African agriculture (TAAT, by its English acronym), a program that covers nine basic food products in more than 30 African countries. He said the Bank intends to mitigate the effects of the food crisis through the African Food Crisis Response and Emergency Facility – a dedicated facility that will provide African countries with the resources needed to increase food production. local area and get fertilizer.
For Adesina, a fertilizer crisis caused by the Russian war in Ukraine could jeopardize more than $10 billion in food production. He announced that the Bank had convened a global meeting of key global leaders in development, finance, public and private sectors for mid-May to facilitate Africa’s access to fertilizers.
Adesina was received at the White House by Dana Banks, Special Assistant to US President Joseph Biden and Senior Director for Africa at the White House. Banks said it was important to mitigate the fallout from the Russian war in Ukraine on food security in Africa and highly commended the African Development Bank’s leading role in its emergency food production plan for Africa. Africa.
Adesina also met with Melinda French Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. French Gates said it was important for Africa to feed itself and focus on nutrition. She expressed her support for the bold emergency food production plan for Africa drawn up by the African Development Bank and called for a strong replenishment of the African Development Fund. She also called for a strong replenishment of the resources of the African Development Fund. “I will be your strong advocate for G7 countries to do more for the African Development Fund and to make more resources available to Africa,” she said.
A meeting of heads of regional multilateral development banks was also held to discuss, among other things, the impact that the Russian war in Ukraine was having on development efforts around the world. Adesina highlighted its direct impact on Africa’s food and fertilizer supply. He also highlighted the Bank’s collaboration on climate change with the Global Center on Adaptation, as well as the Bank’s all-time high investment in renewable energy, of which the portfolio reached 83%.
Adesina and several heads of multilateral development banks agreed that it was imperative to speak with one voice on the reallocation of special drawing rights from the International Monetary Fund.
The President of the Bank also spoke of the importance of endogenous production of vaccines in Africa as well as the progress made to materialize the idea of an African Foundation for Pharmaceutical Technology.
During a meeting at the Atlantic Council Earlier in the week, Adesina took questions from its Africa Chairperson, Ambassador Rama Yade, and other panelists, giving a broad perspective of Africa’s challenges and steps taken by African countries to address them. address, with the support of the African Development Bank Group. He called for greater mobilization of resources in Africa. “I don’t believe in begging. Africa must develop further using its own resources,” he said.
The President of the Bank Group invited his various interlocutors to the Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank Group which will take place from May 23 to 27, 2022 in Accra, Ghana.