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Add to Preferred Sources“The future of our continent is looking very promising indeed,” African Development Bank Group President Akinwumi Adesina declared in the opening words of his address to diplomats at a lunch organised on February 5, in Abidjan.
Adesina referred to the Bank’s recent flagship publication, the African Economic Outlook 2019, which noted that the recovery in commodity prices is driving domestic demand and infrastructure investment, while real Africa’s GDP continued to improve in 2018 to 4.1%. The Bank expects growth of 4% this year and 4.1% in 2020.
Economic opportunities in Africa are generating considerable interest globally. For example, the agreement in March 2018 establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will create the largest free trade area in the world. The CFTA will provide an unprecedented framework with the capacity to increase trade by at least 100% in Africa.
“The African Development Bank is at the centre of the actions taken to ensure the success of the continental free-trade area. We have invested over one billion dollars to support the financing of trade in Africa,” Adesina said.
In its report on intra-African investment, the African Development Bank emphasised the significant increase in cross-border investments – $12 billion last year, up from $2 billion in 2010. Under the G20 Compact with Africa, the Bank has worked with the World Bank and the IMF to provide assistance to African countries, particularly to improve company regulations and the business environment.
“Africa will not develop through aid, but through investment”, said Adesina. This is why the African Development Bank, with its partners, launched the highly successful Africa Investment Forum (AIF), in Johannesburg, South Africa last November, securing investment interest in 49 deals across Africa worth over $38 billion in just two days.
The Bank was the lead lender for the construction of the historic Senegambia bridge linking Gambia and Senegal, which opened on 21 January 2019. And the Bank’s investment portfolio in Côte d’Ivoire has tripled in the last three years, reaching $1.8 billion in 2018.
The Bank’s High 5 priorities are already producing significant impacts across the continent. In 2018, 4.5 million people were connected to electrical grids. Nearly 20 million more people have access to improved agricultural technologies. Industrial investments in the private sector have benefited 1.1 million people. Some 14 million people have gained access to improved transport services, while another 8 million people have benefited from better access to water and sanitation. These impacts encourage the Bank to redouble its support for economic and social development in Africa.
“We need to achieve universal access to electricity. We need to help Africa to become self-sufficient in food. We need to achieve a fully integrated continent. We need to industrialize Africa and improve the quality of life for its people,” Adesina concluded.
Original source: AfDB
Published on 05 February 2019