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The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank has approved an equity investment of $10 million in the ARCH Cold Chain Solutions East Africa Fund (CCSEAF) to support the development, construction and operation of greenfield cold storage, temperature-controlled solutions and distribution facilities in East Africa.

African Development Bank approves $10 million equity investment to boost cold storage and distribution of food, pharmaceuticals, in East Africa

In 2020 North African economies experienced three shocks: the COVID-19 pandemic, a collapse in oil prices, and a steep drop in tourism. Growth was also cut short due, in part, to sharp contractions in the region’s main European trade partners. Real GDP growth was negative in 2020, at –1.1 percent—a 5.1 percentage point drop over 2019.Still, this output loss was less severe than projected thanks to governments’ prompt interventions to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic. 

North Africa Economic Outlook 2021

East Africa is the only region in Africa that avoided a recession in 2020, thanks to better performance in agriculture, sustained public spending on large infrastructure projects, and increased regional economic integration. But political fragility in some countries and limited economic diversification in others were major impediments to growth. East Africa’s GDP growth is projected to recover to 3.0 percent in 2021 from 0.7 percent in 2020, supported by the global economic recovery. However, the slow rollout of COVID-19 vaccines and risks of spikes in infections could dampen that outlook. 

East Africa Economic Outlook 2021

• Public interventions in agricultural and rural finance are common over the world to overcome the many supply and demand constraints inherent in agricultural finance. • Various instruments are used according to country’s context, but their efficacy depends largely on the depth of State involvement in enabling a sustainable ecosystem for financing agriculture. • Effectiveness relies in particular on a better articulation between multiple entities through solid institutional constructions at different levels, macro, meso and micro to reach more difficult audiences. • For most African countries, efforts should focus on making the regulatory framework more incentive-based, mobilizing and combining  market and non-market-based financial and non-financial tools in a more holistic perspective.

PUBLIC INTERVENTIONS IN AGRICULTURE FINANCE: Choosing between Conventional and Innovative Instruments

The COVID‐19 pandemic has been contained relatively successfully in Central Africa, which comprises the six member countries of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC)—Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon—and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Partly due to government lockdowns, mask requirements, and mobility restrictions and partly to the region’s younger populations and distance from highly infected areas, COVID-related deaths in the seven countries totaled about 2,953 at the end of June 2021. Thus, the region’s COVID deaths accounted for just 2.1 percent of all COVID deaths in Africa—the lowest level of all African regions. The highest tolls have been in Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo, with 1,320 and 916 deaths respectively as of June 27, 2021. 

Central Africa Economic Outlook 2021 - Debt Dynamics: The Path to Post-COVID Recovery

The transition to a green economy will create many new jobs around the world, including in sub-Saharan Africa. Will women share-in these new jobs, and will the economic transformation help women move into higher-paid, more stable jobs that require more education and skills? The short answer is “yes” – provided countries adopt strong policies and programmes to make it happen.

Green jobs for women in Africa

Despite the lockdowns necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, many African countries continue to signal visa openness to the citizens of other countries on the continent: The top 10 countries’ average score on the Africa Visa Openness Index rose to 0.904 from 0.902 in 2020.

Africa Visa Openness Report 2021

A landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley, where the African Great Lakes and East Africa converge. It is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Rwanda - Country Profiles - 2021

East Africa, bordering Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique and the Indian Ocean. Its main entry port is the city of Dar es Salaam.

Tanzania - Country Profiles - 2021

This report contains an analysis of gas sector value chains and downstream policy tradeoffs. It is intended to enhance the capacity of regional member countries to strike a balance between maximizing revenue from production of natural resources, and integrating them into national economies through downstream processing. Achieving this balance will advance the African Development Bank’s drive to industrialize Africa. Increasing downstream processing capacity presents a significant challenge for both the private sector and government. The report recommends that policymakers assess both barriers and economic benefits associated with downstream processing in order to make informed policy choices.

The Natural Gas Value Chain: Potential for National Economies

Prior to Covid-19, Kenya was already on a high public debt trajectory. Covid-19 and its related shocks have only compounded the debt situation in the country. Consequently, the sustainability of the country’s public debt remains a major concern of not only the Kenyan authorities, but also among the populace, financial institutions, and other key stakeholders. Other than the consistent increase in the debt stock, debt-to-GDP ratio and the cost of debt service, concerns are also ripe on the progressive shift of the debt portfolio in favour of expensive commercial loans and the bilateral loans (majority of which is held by China – about 70 per cent) observed in the recent years. In May 2020, IMF downgraded the country’s risk of external debt distress from moderate to high on the account of elevated vulnerabilities instigated by the Covid-19 crisis. Kenya’s the debt-carrying capacity was also downgraded by the IMF from strong to medium in April 2021.

Policy Note - Public Debt Dynamics in Kenya

The 2020 Africa Sustainable Development Report is the fourth in a series of reports dating back to 2017. It seeks to provide a comprehensive analysis of Africa’s progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the objectives of the African Union’s Agenda 2063. In particular, it analyses Africa’s progress towards the SDGs under five Pillars: People, Prosperity, Planet, Peace and Partnerships. These Pillars closely correspond to the five transformational outcomes of Agenda 2063 and its 20 goals.

2020 Africa Sustainable Development Report

Economic mainstay: Agriculture is regarded as Kenya’s economic backbone, mainly because it employs a majority of the population (about 60 percent) and makes up 65 percent of exports. However, the services sector contributes the most to the national GDP at about 56 percent, as per the available 2017 data, followed by agriculture with a contribution of 23.5 percent and industry at 21 percent.

Kenya - African Development Bank Country Profiles

Rwanda aspires to attain an upper middle, and then transition to a high income country status by 2035 and 2050 respectively. This aspiration recognises and builds on the role played by non-metallic mineral products in ensuring the country achieved an average 9.4% growth per annum in its industrial sector since 2009.

Assessment of the Potential of Development Mineral Value Chains to Support Rwanda’s Economic Development

The African Development Bank Group’s Strategy is tightly focused on three categories of health infrastructure that match the Bank’s comparative advantage, while providing the flexibility to respond to the diverse needs of regional member countries.

Strategy for Quality Health Insurance in Africa

Africa Fintech Summit

The Next Wave

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