Japan, African Development Bank Sign $668.1mln loan Deal
ADDIS ABEBA – African Development Bank (AfDF) said it has secured 73.6 billion Japanese yen or approximately 668.1 million US dollars loan from Japan to help replenish the lender’s main development fund.
The signing between the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the African Development Fund (ADF) – a concessional arm of AfDB – took place on Wednesday virtually.
AfDB officials expect their projects to change the lives of millions of Africans within the two-year life span of the ADF-15 period which began in 2020.
The Bank said up to 28,000 km of new or improved power distribution lines will have been installed, around 9 million people will have improved access to water and sanitation and up to $1.6 billion of turnover will have been generated from investments in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.
Japan’s concessional donor loan is almost 10% of the total ADF-15 resources of $7.5 billion.
“This is a continuation of the strong leadership role of Japan in providing concessional loans to the African Development Fund,” said Akinwumi A. Adesina, president of AfDB.
“Japan continues to add great value to the overall replenishment cycles of the African Development Fund,” Adesina said, adding that the latest loan will “allow us to ramp up much-needed support to the ADF countries…especially now at this critical time when they are struggling to cope with and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Japan is the fifth-largest contributor of the 32 countries supporting the African Development Fund, which is replenished every three years and supports 37 countries on the continent.
