The African Development Bank, AfDB, has pledged to support public development banks in achieving climate and sustainable development goals, SDGs.
The President of the AfDB, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, said this at a virtual Finance in Common Summit. This comes ahead of a summit on Financing African Economies to be convened by French President, Emmanuel Macron on May 18.
The event also had in attendance, Mr Rémy Rioux, President International Development Finance Club, Mr Ambroise Fayolle, Vice-President, European Investment Bank, Mr Koen Doens, Director-General, International Partnerships, European Commission and Ms. Rachel Turner, Director, International Finance, UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, among others.
The session focused on the role of PDBs and the reorientation of financial flows towards climate and sustainable development goals.
“Public Development Banks have a major role to play in accelerating development and the achievement of our SDGs. The African Development Bank is strongly supporting PDBs.
“Together, within the framework of finance in common, let us move forward boldly and strengthen institutional capacities and governance and financial capacity of PDBs,” Akinwumi said.
He also spoke on building a system able to work efficiently together to finance regional infrastructure at scale, including energy, ports and highways, rail and ICT infrastructure to accelerate Africa’s regional integration and competitiveness, and assure success of the AfCFTA.
The IDFC President, Rémy Rioux, said that the FIC was a global movement with Africa at its strategic core.
“Africa is a global priority, because African challenges, more than anywhere else, require us to seek coordinated responses and actions,” he said.
Koen Doens, a DG at the European Commission, emphasised on the importance of PDBs in achieving the sustainable development goals.
“Without them, it will be hard, if not impossible, to overcome the challenge of recovery that we are all facing in a sustainable way. That’s why the finance in common approach is so fundamental. Without FICS, we can’t fix it.
“I see them as crucial players in this whole mobilisation of fiscal and monetary tools that we are putting at work to boost recovery globally, and that is certainly the case for Africa,” he said.
The African Development Bank has partnered with African Public Development Banks in collaboration with the Association of African Development Finance Institutions and the International Development Finance Club.
The AfDB’s $3bn Fight Covid-19 social bond has been used to link PDBs’ unique financial ability to concrete urgent development goals.
(Punch)