Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the president of the Arab Republic of Egypt, has praised the African Development Bank Group’s efforts to assist the continent in coping with the effects of global economic issues.
The president of the African Development Bank Group, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, was greeted by the Egyptian leader on Tuesday in Cairo. Professor Kevin Urama, the bank’s vice president and chief economist, and Professor Vincent Nmehielle, the secretary general, joined Dr. Adesina. Hassan Abdallah, the governor of the Central Bank of Egypt, Rami Aboul Naja, the deputy governor for monetary stability, and Mannullah Farid, the deputy governor for external affairs, were also present.
Adesina traveled to Egypt in order to become familiar with the planning for the Bank Group’s 2023 Annual Meetings, which will take place in the resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh from May 22–26. For the sessions to explore mobilizing private sector financing for climate and green growth in Africa, up to 13 leaders of state and government are anticipated to attend. They will be joined by the bank’s governors, executive directors, development partners, and management.
Egypt, according to President El-Sisi, is eager to continue and expand its collaboration with the bank in a number of development-related fields.
In order to address Egypt’s climate concerns, strengthen the resilience of vulnerable systems, and advance sustainable development, the bank is closely collaborating with Egypt to mobilize international climate finance. In order to address the Nexus on Water, Food, and Energy, the Just Green Transition (JGT) program has a pipeline of projects that are investment-ready and valued $14.8 billion.
It was requested that the African Development Bank take the lead in securing funding for the water pillar projects. “The bank has mobilized $2.3 billion beyond the initial aim of $1.4 billion,” stated Dr. Adesina. Moreover, the bank helps fund national water desalination initiatives.
The chairman of the African Development Bank Group commended Egypt for its audacious attempts to get private sector financing for green economic initiatives.
By the end of June of this year, the Egyptian government intends to issue a green bond on the Chinese financial markets. Chinese Renminbi will be used to issue the $500 million Green Panda Bond.
That will be the first time an African nation issues a bond on the Chinese financial markets, according to Dr. Adesina.
In the next months, the bank’s Board of Directors will talk about Egypt’s request for a $345 million partial credit guarantee to support the issuing of the bond.
The Green Panda Bond is the most recent of numerous bonds Egypt has issued since introducing its Green Finance Framework in 2020.
Adesina praised Egypt for its dedication to enhancing the contribution of the private sector to the economy.
Egypt began early this year the privatization of 32 state-owned companies valued at $40 billion over the following four years, with the goal of reducing the economic influence of the public sector and promoting the expansion of the private sector.
The bank intends to give Egypt $133 million in extra funding in 2023 to help it handle with the macroeconomic uncertainty brought by by the ongoing global debt crisis. The bank gave Egypt $272 million in policy-based operations last year to help Egypt combat the effects of the crisis.
Adesina met with Major General (Rt) Khaled Fouda, the Governor of the South Sinai Governorate, on Wednesday. He stated that Sharm El Sheikh is prepared to accommodate more than 2,000 delegates who would be attending the bank’s Annual Meetings in May.
The infrastructure and amenities the Egyptian government had developed in Sharm El-Sheikh, which successfully hosted the COP 27 last year, Adesina claimed, had pleased the bank.
“Sharm El-infrastructure Sheikh’s that you have created is incredible. It’s top-notch. The city is evolving continually, and green growth is at the core of this change. It serves as an illustration of how effectively funding local governments and other subnational organizations can result in significant social and economic growth, the bank president added. “From Sharm, other African nations may learn.”
Adesina also had meetings in Egypt with ambassadors from the bank’s owners and development partners. Notwithstanding the recent economic shocks and geopolitical difficulties that have affected them, he stated that the bank remained dedicated to helping nations in Africa experience rapid growth.
“It is a very difficult world to be dealing with, and so as African Development Bank, our role is to support the accelerated development of African countries in financing their economic and social development agenda, and also building the resilience of their economies. We help African countries to be able to deal with the series of shocks—whether it is climate, whether it is debt, whether it is recovering from the Covid-19 situation, or whether it is investing in the things they need for structural transformation of their economies,” Adesina reaffirmed.
Rania Al-Mashat, the Egyptian Minister for International Cooperation, Ebtisam Rakha, the Deputy Assistant Minister for Regional Economic Organizations, Mr. Hassan Abdallah, the Acting Central Bank Governor of Egypt, Dr. Mohamadou Labarang, the Dean of African Ambassadors in Egypt, and Nomoto Takaaki, the Executive Director of the African Development Bank, were all in attendance.
