AfDB, EIB sign joint partnership action plan to fast-track development in Africa

By By Richard Lockhart in Edinburgh January 21, 2021

The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have signed a joint partnership action plan that aims to strengthen co-operation and mutual development priorities.

The two partners aim to boost public and private sector investment in Africa, especially in major infrastructure, power and sustainability projects.

The Joint Action Plan enables both institutions to grow a shared pipeline of bankable projects around key complementary themes to which each institution would bring their comparative advantage.

These themes are: climate action and environmental sustainability; transformative large-scale quality infrastructure investment; information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure and services; financial inclusion with a gender lens aimed at the empowerment of girls and women; education and training; and the health sector.

The signing comes amid the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic which is increasing poverty across the African continent and threatening markets and livelihoods, heightening the urgency for action.

The agreement was signed by African Development Bank, acting senior vice-president Bajabulile Swazi Tshabalala, and Thomas Östros, European Investment Bank vice-president, during a virtual ceremony preceded by a short roundtable between the two senior management members and representatives from both institutions.

“It is crucial that more multinational development banks and other development finance institutions commit to closer and stronger collaboration, such as seen through this Joint Action Plan between the AfDB and the EIB, in order to more efficiently and effectively support our regional member countries during these troubling times,” said Tshabalala.

“Sustainable economic growth and security in regions facing particular challenges, such as the Sahel and Horn of Africa, are our top priority.”

The Joint Action Plan was developed following an EIB delegation meeting with the AfDB in February 2020.

“Partnerships are crucial for the EIB’s business and impact, and this partnership with Africa’s Bank is crucial for Africa. The Action Plan signed with the African Development Bank today demonstrates the firm commitment of the European Investment Bank, the EU Bank, to delivering investment that makes a real difference to Africa. Enhancing our work with the African Development Bank, Africa’s multilateral development bank, is a strategic priority for the EIB and Europe. Together the EIB and AfDB will enhance co-operation and engagement with African partners to ensure that Africa emerges from the health, social and economic challenges of COVID-19 to an even brighter 21st Century,” said the EIB's Östros.

Over the past five years, the shared portfolio of the two institutions has grown to €3.4bn, leveraging investment totalling €10.2bn for 26 projects across the continent.

Recent co-operation to increase venture capital financing for innovation and technology companies through the Boost Africa initiative and commitment to the Desert to Power programme highlights how public banks accelerate financing in priority policy areas.

In recent years the EIB and AfDB have jointly supported clean energy, water, transport and private sector projects across the continent, from Morocco in the north, Senegal in the west, Kenya in the east and Zambia in the south, and elsewhere across Africa.

In the Sahel region, both AfDB and EIB are financing climate and energy initiatives such as Desert-to-Power and the Great Green Wall Initiative.

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