African Development Bank Group says it will now integrate the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) into its country and regional integration strategies.
The lender’s President, Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina, said Friday while receiving AfCTA Secretary-General Wamkele Mene, in Abidjan on 29 October that “the implementation of the free trade area will become a key component of the Bank’s lending program. We want to have a critical mass of AfCFTA-aligned investments.”
The Bank and the Secretariat are to put together an Africa industrialization forum for more directed Bank support. “We want to ensure that industries emerge in a more structured manner in Africa,” the African Development Bank president said.
Both leaders agreed to draft a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to strengthen their relationship and facilitate effective collaboration.
The African Development Fund, the Bank group’s concessional lending arm, provided support for the establishment of the AfCFTA Secretariat in Accra, Ghana through a $5 million institutional grant to the African Union.
Adesina said the Bank would support the AfCTA Secretariat in implementing its various trade and industrial initiatives and programmes.
“We have a responsibility to ensure that that the African Continental Free Trade Area is an industrial hub. The zone should become an area for manufacturing, not merely for trading,” Adesina stressed. He said the Bank would work closely with the AfCTA Secretariat to ensure that Africa produces at scale. “We require a large industrial manufacturing zone that generates income and competes on a local and global scale,” the African Development Bank chief said.
Also Read:
- AfDB appoints Bajabulile “Swazi’’ Tshabalala as Senior Vice President
- AfDB blacklists multimillion Kenyan construction firm over fraud
- AfDB signs agreement with Cameroon to construct ring road in restive Anglophone region
Mene said the Secretariat would help member states remove trade barriers to boost intra-African trade. “But we cannot do so without the support of the African Development Bank,” he said, explaining … “we would just be a trading hub with no real output.”
Wamkele Mene said that the African Continental Free Trade Area provided Africa with a great opportunity to develop the necessary infrastructure to support trade and benefit small and medium enterprises.
He sought the Bank’s continuous support. “We want the initiative to run as an African initiative supported by our heads of state and our development finance institutions,” Mene said.
Adesina said the bank would provide institutional support, particularly in the areas of industrialization, finance, infrastructure, and logistics.
Several senior management officials of the Bank participated in Friday’s meeting, including Senior Vice President Bajabulile “Swazi” Tshabalala, Vice-President for Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery Khaled Sherif, Vice President for Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialization Solomon Adegbie-Quaynor, Special Adviser to the President on Industrialization Professor Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, and Director of the Industrial and Trade Development Department, Abdu Mukhtar.
