The president of the African Development Bank, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, has revealed plans by the financial institution to raise $5billion to support women-empowered businesses in Africa.
Dr Adesina disclosed this in a statement on his official Twitter account moments after the institution commenced its Annual Meetings for 2022.
In one of his tweets, Dr Adesina noted that the AfDB plans to lend $500 million to women in 2022 after paying $483 million to financial institutions to lend to women businesses in 2021.
He added that with the support of French President Mr Emmanuel Macron and the G-7, the AfDB’s Affirmative Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) seeks to raise $5 billion for women-led businesses.
Commenting on the food crisis arising from the Russian-Ukraine war, Dr Adesia said the AfDB board last week approved a $1.5 billion African Emergency Food Production Facility to support 20 million farmers to produce 38 million metric tons of food.
He also said the bank is partnering globally with the Global Center on Adaptation and former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to mobilise $25 billion to help Africa adapt to climate change.
In another Tweet, Dr Adesina praised the AfDB after it was ranked the Best multilateral financial institution in the world in 2021.
According to him, “The African Development Bank was ranked by Global Finance as the Best multilateral financial institution in the world in 2021, while 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 an 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, our work has impacted 335 million people.
In highlighting these successes, the AfDB president tweeted that an independently conducted survey by a global HR firm found 85 per cent of staff are happy with the bank, an exceptionally high level for any institution globally.
Dr Adesina, who dismissed recent critics of the Bank’s management, said that despite COVID-19 and the challenges of working from home, 97 per cent of staff were pleased with the services provided by the bank.
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