ADB SECURES $31BN AT INVESTMENT FORUM

ABIDJAN - The African Development Bank raised $31 billion in investment commitments for projects during the Africa Investment Forum, said the bank’s president Akinwumi Adesina at the end of the three-day meeting on Friday.

It brings the total investment for the year to about $64 billion, said Adesina. The bank secured $32.8 billion at another meeting with investors in March.

Adesina gave few details about the projects but said one focus would be agricultural processing zones.

Projects announced earlier in the year were from sectors including agriculture and agro-processing, education, energy and climate, healthcare, minerals and mining, and information and communications technology. – Meanwhile, the Arab Monetary Fund has extended a $74 million loan to Tunisia to help the nation’s fiscal position and boost its gradually recovering economy.

The loan package will support the country, which is still reeling from an economic crisis, in implementing reforms to promote recovery, as well as encourage more support from other regional and international financial institutions, the Abu Dhabi-based AMF said in a statement at the weekend. The agreement was signed by Abdulrahman Al Hamidy, director general and chairman of the AMF’s board of executive directors, and Marouane El Abassi, governor and chairman of the Central Bank of Tunisia’s executive board. “The AMF supports the efforts of its member countries to implement economic, financial, monetary and structural reforms, in face of various challenges, through a number of means, including financing the needs of the balance of payments and public budgets, and financing trade,” the AMF said in the statement.