What was in the air is now official. Indeed, Benin has committed to contributing two million dollars to the next replenishment of resources of the African Development Fund, the concessional rate loan window of the African Development Bank Group.
Enough for the Beninese Minister of Economy and Finance, Romuald Wadagni, to make this announcement in Cotonou during the opening session of the mid-term review of the 16th replenishment of the Fund’s resources (FAD-16).
Shortly after this announcement, the President of the African Development Bank Group, Akinwumi Adesina, called on the President of the Republic of Benin, Patrice Talon, to be a champion of ADF-17 and encouraged him to “pledge support financial “.
The African Development Fund was a trusted partner for low-income countries and recommended that each “beneficiary country demonstrate rigor and transparency”, Minister Wadagni stressed, adding that one of Benin’s objectives was to “ensure that we can use the instrument that constitutes the ADF in the form of guarantees and raise funds in order to benefit from its leverage effect”.
The current three-year funding cycle, which has seen a record $8.9 billion, ends in 2025. Benin becomes the seventh African country to make a contribution, joining Algeria, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Morocco and South Africa.
Mr. Adesina, citing Kenya’s pledge of twenty million dollars to the Fund, a May 2024 announcement by President William Ruto at the 2024 AfDB Group Annual Meetings in Nairobi said that “our ambition is to encourage more African countries to become contributing States to the resources of the African Development Fund.
Akinwumi Adesina indicated that the African Development Fund was providing Benin with $108.2 million in general budget support for economic governance and the private sector development program focused on improving the general business climate, support for the agro-industrial sector and strengthening the development of special economic zones such as that of Glo-Djigbé, which the Fund’s plenipotentiaries visited as part of the mid-term review program.
The African Development Fund is achieving impactful and impressive results on the continent, assured Mr. Adesina. “15 million Africans have had access to electricity, 74 million have benefited from improvements in agriculture that contribute to food security, 45 million have benefited from improved transport, and more than 8,700 kilometers of roads have been built or rehabilitated,” said the president of the African Development Bank.
“I am proud of what this institution has achieved during its 50 years of existence,” he praised, mentioning the fact that the Fund had been ranked “second best concessional financing institution in the world for quality of its development assistance.
The Cotonou meeting was attended by ministers, representatives of contributing and beneficiary member countries, the Board of Directors, management and staff of the African Development Bank Group.
Moctar FICUU / VivAfrik
