African Development Fund approves $3.48 million grant to strengthen trade and industrial policy in five countries

The African Development Fund, the concessional arm of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), has approved a $3.48 million grant to support industrial and trade policy development in Cameroon, Chad, the Comoros, Madagascar, and Togo. The financing will fund impact assessments on the African Union’s Accelerated Industrial Development for Africa (AIDA) framework and support the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in these transition economies, according to a press release. The Fund’s Board of Directors approved the grant on July 13. It aims to strengthen the design of evidence-based, inclusive, and climate-sensitive industrial and trade policies. The initiative reflects a coordinated push to enhance regional integration and industrialization across the beneficiary countries.

The grant will address persistent gaps in institutional capacity, data quality, and policy coordination. These gaps continue to hinder industrialization efforts and the effective implementation of trade policies across the five countries. National institutions often lack access to reliable, disaggregated, and climate-relevant data. Fragmented coordination mechanisms further limit their ability to produce coherent, inclusive policies. The project responds directly to these long-standing structural constraints.

Under the project, activities will include tailored training, multilingual learning materials, practical exercises in data collection and validation, and on-the-ground technical support. It will promote shared methodologies for developing, monitoring, and evaluating public policies. Indicators on gender equality, climate change, and small and medium-sized enterprises will be integrated into national monitoring and evaluation systems. Beneficiaries include public officials, trade analysts, academics, government ministries, and development agencies. Regional economic communities and businesses led by women and young people are also among the target groups.

“National institutions often lack sufficient access to reliable, disaggregated, and climate-relevant data, while fragmented coordination mechanismsh limit their ability to design coherent, inclusive, and evidence-based policies,” said Memory Dube, the project team leader at the African Development Bank Group.

She added that the project provides “a standardised and analytically robust methodology, tailored to national realities, to assess industrial and trade dynamics.” The initiative will also strengthen the technical capacity of government experts. It will support the institutional mechanisms required to produce, analyse, and utilize new evidence. These measures aim to align policy design with the practical realities of each country.

The project will be implemented by the African Union Development Agency – New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AUDA-NEPAD), in collaboration with national institutions and regional stakeholders. It builds on earlier work to develop and pilot the AfCFTA/AIDA Impact Assessment Guide. The new phase will support the guide’s wider application in countries in transition. Together, these efforts are designed to accelerate industrial transformation and deepen trade integration. The grant marks a further step in advancing the continent’s shared development agenda.