AfDB scaled up project funding by 15% to US$ 7.6 billion in 2014

Abidjan Cote D’Ivoire (Capital Markets in Africa) — The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) realised a 15.3 percent increase in its operations turnover in 2014 compared to 2013 despite the challenging global and regional economic environment, according to AfDB 2014 Annual Report.

Support to infrastructure accounted for over half of the US $7.6 billion invested in the Regional Member Countries (RMCs) during the year, representing a 15.3-percent increase over the 2013 funding portfolio.

According to the Annual Report, a compendium of the Bank’s activities in 2014 and its operations programme for 2015 released Wednesday, May 27 at the AfDB’s Annual Meetings in Abidjan, infrastructure projects (in energy, transport, and water and sanitation) were accorded priority over the four other operational domains – regional integration, private sector development, skills and technology, and governance and accountability.  

The Bank’s other funding approvals for the year were channelled to the finance sector which accounted for 17.9 percent of the loans allocated to the continent’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in order to ease their financing constraints and promote financial inclusion. Agriculture, which accounted for 10.8 percent of the loans and grants, focused on enhancing food security and raising productivity. The social sector received 8.3 percent of all approvals, with skills development, technological innovation, and improvement of health-care service delivery as key beneficiaries.

he Bank’s efforts to diversify its client base helped extend AfDB public-sector lending to 11 countries, almost double the number in 2013. The AfDB private-sector window helped leverage some US $19.5 billion in co-financing, more than double the year’s target of US $9 billion. 

Furthermore, the Bank’s move towards mobilizing innovative financing for the development of infrastructure in Africa became a reality following the incorporation of the Africa50 fund in Morocco with a US $100 million seed capital in 2014, barely a year after it was established.

To download the full report: http://www.afdb.org/en/knowledge/publications/annual-report/