AfDB to raise and loan $500m to female businesses this year
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Female businesses in Africa will this year receive $500 million loan fillip from the African Development Bank (AfDB), part of the $5 billion it is trying to raise and lend to exclusive female enterprises across the continent.
The plan is under the Affirmative Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) and the bank is on the $5 billion quest with the support of French President Emmanuel Macron and the G7.
AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina announced the plan on Twitter where he also disclosed that the bank paid out $483 million to financial institutions to lend to women businesses in 2021.
His statement coincides with the commencement of AfDB 2022 Annual Meetings ahead of which he commended the Board of Governors, Board of Directors, management and all staff of the bank for their hard work.
Adesina equally thanked AfDB’s 81 shareholder countries for their confidence and support.
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Rebound after the pandemic
“Our rapid COVID-19 response facility helped towards stabilising African economies. It trained 130,000 health workers.
“It provided social protection for about 30 million vulnerable households. It provided advisory support for 300,000 small and medium-sized businesses,” Adesina said, according to reporting by Nairametrics.
“To tackle food crisis from Russia-Ukraine crisis, our board of directors approved last week a $1.5 billion Africa Emergency Food Production Facility, to support 20 million farmers to produce 38 million metric tonnes of food. The bank partnered globally. We delivered.
“To help Africa adapt to climate change, the bank is partnering globally. Together with Global Centre for Adaptation, with former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, we are mobilizing $25 billion in support of Africa.
“With the support of President Emmanuel Macron and G-7, our Affirmative Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) is raising $5 billion for women businesses. In 2021, we paid out $483 million to financial institutions to lend to women businesses. We will lend $500 million to women in 2022.’’
Adesina said the AfDB board approved a crisis response facility of up to $10 billion based on risk assessments when the pandemic struck, and the bank launched a $3 billion COVID-19 social bond on the global capital markets, the highest dollar-denominated social bond in world history.
“The African Development Bank was ranked by Global Finance as the Best multilateral financial institution in the world in 2021. The African Development Fund was ranked by CGD as second best in the world, ahead of all 28 concessional financing institutions in developed countries.
“We are a 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 consistently praise our excellent risk management at the bank.
“We have an excellent and robust management and governance system. We deliver great value for our clients in Africa. Over the past six years, through our High five programmes, our work has impacted on 335 million people. We deliver great value.”