Switzerland, Spain commit €10M to AfDB at COP 27 in support to green urbanization

CAIRO – 18 November 2022: Each of Switzerland and Spain committed - at COP 27 - Thursday €5 million to the African Development Bank (AfDB)'s Urban and Municipal Development Fund (UMDF), whose mission is financing equitable green and climate resilient urbanization.

The AfDB's vice-president, Kevin Urama, stated in July that Africa was losing 5 percent to 15 percent of GDP per capita due to climate change.

The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) inked in September a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the AfDB on hosting the bank's annual meetings on May 22 - 26 in Sharm El-Sheikh.

The bank has a portfolio of 25 operations in Egypt, valued at $1.37 billion, in transport, power, water supply and sanitation, irrigation agriculture, technical assistance, and capacity-building. 

In July, the Board of Directors of the AfDB approved a development financing for Egypt worth $271 million. That is within the framework of the rapid financing mechanism to face the repercussions of the global food crisis; according to which the Bank provides fast and easy financing to all African countries to implement the financial and social programs necessary to face the effects resulting from the crisis. 

On Monday, AfDB's President of the African Development Bank Group, Akinwumi Adesina, revealed the bank’s desire to establish integrated agro-industrial zones in Egypt, bringing together all the links of the value chain in one place, similar to the bank's successful experience in this regard in a number of fellow African countries.

Adesina's statements came during a meeting between the Minister of Trade and Industry, Ahmed Samir.

“The AfDB has an important role in the development of the small and medium enterprises sector in Egypt, and this is through providing financing of $160 million to Banque Misr to support these projects,” said the Minister of Trade and Industry, Ahmed Samir.

“We are keen to deepen the pharmaceutical industry and transfer knowledge and modern technology in cooperation with the Bank, and benefit from its ambitious plans to build capabilities and raise the efficiency of distinguished companies in the pharmaceutical industry in Africa,” the minister added.

According to the minister, this will be done by providing training for medical personnel and providing the necessary infrastructure to establish a real drug industry in the continent, and that they are studying the possibility of benefiting from the bank’s strong presence within the countries of the brown continent in promoting Egyptian exports in all its export sectors.