Africa receives $33 billion financing from IDB in four decades

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Tuesday 09 Jun 2015 - 22:45 Makkah mean time-22-8-1436 Maputo (IINA) - The African continent has received a total financing of $33 billion from the Islamic Development Bank Group in the last 40 years according to Dr. Ahmad  Mohamed Ali, president of IDB. Dr. Ali made the remarks in a speech at a seminar  entitled “Role of the Coordination Group in the Development of Africa” ahead of the  commencement of the 40th Annual Meeting of the IDB Board of Governors in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. Dr. Ali told the participants that right from inception, IDB has been Africa friendly, because the first project approved by the bank was the Song Loulou Hydro-electric dam project in Cameroon in October 1976 for $7 million. “Let me mention one of the flagship programs, Special Project for the Development of Africa  (SPDA) which the IDB Group implemented in its African member countries from 2002-2012.  The SPDA was a follow up to the successful implementation of the Ouagadougou declaration. Under the SPDA an investment of $12 billion was made, with the IDB Group  contributing $5 billion”, said the IDB President. Dr. Ali explained that the Coordination Group, which is comprised of IDB, Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, Arab Gulf Programme for  United Nations Development, Arab Monetary Fund,  Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, OPEC Fund for International Development, and Saudi Fund for Development, have contributed $7.4 billion to the African continent in the last four years.   Despite the effort of the IDB and other development partners, Dr. Ali stated that still the African continent faces a number of challenges particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa where GDP  per capita income remains low and there is huge gap in infrastructure. He added that other  challenges facing the continent include the health sector particularly with the recent challenges of Ebola as well security concerns in a number of countries. He then assured the participants that IDB is ready to contribute its quota in addressing the challenges facing the continent especially on sustainable development goals.  In his remarks, the Minister of Finance and Economy of Mozambique, Adriano Afonso stated  that the seminar provides an opportunity for African policy makers to listen to the kind of projects supported by the Coordination Group. He said that from 1975-2014 Mozambique has benefited  $800 million from the Coordination Group. AB/IINA