The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has revealed plans by the financial institution to raise $5billion to support women-empowered businesses in Africa.
Dr. Adesina disclosed this in a statement on his official Twitter account moments after the institution commenced its Annual Meetings for 2022.
“AfDB plans to lend $5 billion to women in 2022 with the support of French President Emmanuel Macron and the G-7 after paying $483 million to financial institutions to lend to women businesses in 2021,” his tweet read.
He added that the $5 billion financial support is to help realize the goal of Affirmative Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA). The Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa is a Pan-African initiative to bridge the $42 billion financing gap facing women in Africa.
AfDB approved a $1.5 billion emergency fund, 20 million farmers to benefit
Commenting on the food crisis arising from the Russian-Ukraine war, Dr. Adesina said the AfDB board has approved a $1.5 billion African Emergency Food Production Facility to support 20 million farmers to produce 38 million metric tons of food to avert any looming food shortages due to the food crisis caused by the Russian-Ukraine war.
He also said the bank is partnering globally with the Global Center on Adaptation and former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to mobilize $25 billion to help Africa adapt to climate change.
Dr. Adesina, who dismissed recent critics of the Bank’s management, said that despite COVID-19 and the challenges of working from home, 85 percent of clients are happy with the services provided by the bank.
“The African Development Bank was ranked by Global Finance as the Best Multilateral Financial Institution in the world in 2021, while the African Development Fund was ranked by CGD as second best globally, ahead of all 28 concessional financing institutions in developed countries. We are an AAA-rated financial institution, the only one in Africa. We have consistently maintained our stellar AAA credit ratings by all major global credit rating agencies, who always praise our excellent risk management at the bank. We have excellent and robust management and governance system. We deliver great value for our clients in Africa. Over the past six years, our work has impacted 335 million people.”
Dr. Adesina
In highlighting these successes, the AfDB President tweeted that an independently global HR firm conducted a survey and found out that 97 percent of staff were pleased with the bank, an exceptionally high level for any institution globally.
Affirmative Action for Women in Africa poised to empower ‘WMSMEs’
The AFAWA program seeks to improve women-led MSMEs’ (‘WMSMEs’) access to finance across the African continent using a unique risk-sharing mechanism dedicated to Women-led MSMEs.
It also focuses on overcoming the institutional challenges constraining women’s access to finance. By employing a holistic approach, the program offers innovative and tailored financial products, including a credit enhancement instrument, specialized capacity building pieces of training for financial institutions and Women-led MSMEs, and targeted initiatives to transform the business-enabling environment Women-led MSMEs.
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