MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st September, 2018) The African Development Bank's (AfDB) partnerships with European organizations on gender parity, infrastructure development and youth employment are critical for Africa's economic development, Akinwumi Adesina, the president of the AfDB told Sputnik on Friday.
"I think the partnership between Europe and Africa is very critical for accelerating development on the continent," Adesina said.
During Adesina's visit to Canada this week, the AfDB announced that it was partnering up with Canadian finance institution FinDev for a 2016 project, Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA), a $300 million risk-sharing facility that will be used to leverage around $3 billion from commercial banks and other African financial institutions.
Meanwhile, Adesina said that the bank has held talks with a number of European countries that have expressed their interest in the project.
"We have been discussing with the Germans on this, and there is a lot of positive interest. We have also been discussing with the government of the Netherlands, and they have shown a lot of positive interest in this, and I had quite a few trips to the Nordic countries, the Nordic countries are quite interested in it too," Adesina said.
The bank president stated that he believed AFAWA would be the biggest effort ever to leverage financial institutions to lend to women in Africa.
He added that the project would create inclusive growth within African economies that would simultaneously promote gender parity.
"Therefore Africa's economies will move up faster, and achieve a lot more inclusive growth, when we have greater equality between women and men," Adesina said.
According to the World Bank Group, the proportion of permanent full-time female workers in Sub-Saharan Africa stands at 27.6 percent, which is 4.6 percent below the global average.
The AfDB continues to invest in infrastructure and youth employment projects with European organizations. Since September 2017, the bank has worked with the European Commission on the Pillar Assessed Grant or Delegation Agreement (PAGODA), a framework agreement which blends financial instruments to mobilize resources for Africa's infrastructure development.
Adesina expressed hope that the bank would obtain an additional $1 billion under PAGODA.
"Also together with the European Commission, we are working together on infrastructure investment, which is called PAGODA. We have ... been able to invest way over 500 million Euros in Africa for infrastructure. We are hoping that together we will be able to mobilize up to an additional, up to $1 billion for that PAGODA," Adesina said.
Moreover, the AfDB has partnered with the European Investment Bank to create the Boost Africa initiative, a $200 million project that will support the business ideas of young people.
"The African Development Bank is a great partner with the European Investment Bank in a number of areas. Firstly we are working on a project that is called Boost Africa. Boost Africa is about a $200 million financing vehicle that will support ... businesses of young people in Africa in which the risks are quite high. It will invest in the ideas of young people, helping them to turn those into bankable projects and give them access to working capital to be able to run their businesses. So that's one thing that we are doing," Adesina said.
The projects financed by the bank seek to create sustainable economic development and social progress in the AfDB's regional member countries, resulting in poverty reduction.
