President William Ruto demands $25 billion African Development Fund replenishment, underscoring his impression of Kenya’s improvement – Capsud.web

The President of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, has reaffirmed his commitment to continue investing in Kenya.

NAIROBI, Kenya, May 15, 2024 -/African Media Agency(AMA)/-Kenyan President William Ruto has strengthened his marketing campaign for the largest replenishment of the African Development Fund, highlighting the transformative impression of initiatives supported by the monetary window of the African Development Fund. African Development Bank Group.

President Ruto reiterated his request during a high-level meeting with Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank Group, held at State House, Nairobi on Thursday. Mr Adesina was in Kenya to review the level of preparedness for the 59th Annual Meeting of the Banking Group, to be held in the Kenyan capital from May 27 to 31. He also spoke to media leaders at the AllAfrica Media Leaders Summit in Nairobi.

In his personal speech at the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) meeting last month in Nairobi (hyperlink is exterior)President Ruto had requested a massive 17-fold improvement, amounting to US$25 billion, within the assets of the African Development Fund, which helps 37 low-income countries on the continent. The sixteenth replenishment, which reported $8.9 billion in December 2022, is expected to be completed in 2025.

“I will strongly advocate that the African Development Fund be filled for the seventeenth time. “Kenya has benefited from the assets offered by the Fund,” President Ruto said.

Mr Ruto cited the Second Mile Communication Project, which enabled it to go from 2.5 million households related to the rural electricity community to over 10 million in 2013-2014. “Kenyans know that it is a program of the authorities, but they should also know that it is funded by the African Development Fund,” President Ruto emphasized. “This challenge is making a difference in the lives of individuals, and we must invest more money to provide this additional momentum. »

The discussions between the two leaders focused on increasing financing in several key sectors, similar to agriculture, which is a priority for the Kenyan authorities due to its rapid transformation potential.

President Ruto reiterated the need to provide the general public with clear and acceptable consuming water, sustainable water supply and sanitation in Kenyan cities, funded by the African Development Bank, because of the optimistic impression it has made on the lives of tens of millions of individuals.

Mr. Adesina, for his part, emphasized the Bank’s commitment to working with the Kenyan authorities to prevent lending to the agricultural sector through means akin to hazard insurance and credit score insurance. He identified its profitable implementation in a number of different countries.

“We used partial debt guarantees to finance Egypt’s $500 million Panda bond issuance. In addition, we used this software to undermine a 350 million euro mortgage for sustainable improvement in Benin. We have done the same in Côte d’Ivoire to mobilize EUR 533 million to finance strategic environmental, social and governance initiatives,” said the Banking Group President.

Mr Adesina said Kenya has the potential to emulate Ethiopia’s success through the implementation of the Bank’s flagship program known as Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT). Ethiopia has increased its cultivated wheat area from less than 5,000 hectares in 2018 to around 2 million hectares in 2024. The country became self-sufficient, offering zero-surplus wheat in just four years.

Furthermore, the two leaders stressed the urgency of reforming the global monetary structure to cope with challenges related to local weather changes that particularly affect the African continent.

President Ruto, who was accompanied by Mr Njuguna Ndung’u, the Secretary of State for National Finance and Economic Planning, among others, spoke about the current tragedy in Kenya attributable to the dangerous climate.

“In the past, drought has killed almost 2.5 million livestock. Our economic system has lost $1.5 billion,” Ruto said. “Early this month we had floods that killed many people and washed away roads, universities and hospitals. » Mr Adesina offered his condolences to President Ruto and the people of Kenya for the deaths and destruction caused by the floods.

Mr Adesina said that due to the significant local weather financing gap in Africa, the African Development Fund established the Climate Action Window as part of its sixteenth refinancing area. “It is the only conditional monetary establishment that has created a window for local weather financing,” he said. The program, with preliminary financing of $429 million, aims to mobilize $7 to $13 billion to help countries in emergency situations, promote local weather changes and reduce the danger of credit score stress associated with local weather investments.

Mr. Adesina thanked President William Ruto and his authorities for his or her dedication in organizing the Bankers Group Annual Meetings to be held from the twenty-seventh to the thirty-first at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre.

The President of the African Development Bank Group was accompanied, among others, by Kevin Urama, Chief Economist and the Bank’s Vice President of Economic and Information Management, Vincent Nmehielle, Secretary General of the Bank Group, and Jonathan Nzayikorera, Executive Director. of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Rwanda, Seychelles, South Sudan, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda, and Nnenna Nwabufo, Managing Director of the Bank of East Africa.

Distributed by the African Development Bank’s African Media Agency (AMA).

Source: African Media Agency (AMA)