UK Plans Investment in Africa’s Infrastructure for Regional Integration
Worried over the low level of intra-African trade which currently stands at 13 per cent, United Kingdom, has announced plans to focus its operations around investing in quality and sustainable infrastructure aimed at strengthening regional integration.
The U.tK is a op donor to the African Development Fund (ADF) which is the African Development Bank’s (AfDB’s) concessional lending arm for its next three-year cycle, ADF-15 (2020 – 2022),
Prior to the UK’ resolve, the ADF had planned to focus on human, governance and institutional capacity development for increased decent job creation and inclusive growth.
According to a statement by AfDB, the next cycle will prioritize bold and transformative projects with the view to achieving ambitious development results, stressing that ADF-15 will address root causes of vulnerability by systematically applying a fragility lens in all its operations.
“The UK is a long-standing strategic partner of the African Development Bank Group and its contribution to both the replenishment of the Fund and the capital increase of the Bank sends a strong signal of mutual trust,” AfDB added.
“This growing partnership between the Bank and the UK was consolidated by the Bank’s participation in the UK-Africa Investment Summit in London earlier this month, at which a new infrastructure financing partnership was announced between the Bank and the Department for International Development (DFID),” AfDB said.
The statement added that already, the UK’s contribution to several Bank’s projects has impacted the lives of millions in Africa’s poorest nations.
“For example, the UK has been a strong supporter of the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA), a multi-donor facility also funded by the governments of Denmark, the U.S., Italy, Norway and Spain.
The fund supports the sustainable energy agenda in Africa through grants and concessional investment to facilitate the preparation of green baseload, green mini-grid and energy efficiency projects; equity investments to bridge the financing gap for small- and medium-scale renewable energy generation projects; and support to the public sector to improve the enabling environment for private investments in sustainable energy,” AfDB said.
AfDB said it is looking to redouble its efforts to promote renewable energy across the continent as the world faces global climate emergency, stating that there are expectation that this transition will be a high priority during COP 26 which will be held in Glasgow in November -hosted with Italy.
“Without any doubt, DFID and the UK government’s investment in the African Development Bank pays off and delivers huge impacts in Africa,” Bank President Akinwumi Adesina said.
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