Like Cape Verde in West Africa, only the enclave island country Seychelles, is eligible for ADB loans, while the other eleven countries access ADF concessionary resources. In 2007 Seychelles had the highest GNP per capita in Africa, ahead of Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Botswana, Mauritius, South Africa, and Gabon, all of which had GNP per capita of over US$5000.

East Africa, like West Africa represents a region of active ADF cooperation and activities, the Bank Group strategy in the region being geared to poverty alleviation, capacity building and achievement of MDB goals through appropriate policy dialogue.

The Bank Group has special assistance funds for the Region of the Great Lakes and post conflict countries like Rwanda, Burundi, and Eritrea. Kenya which has been the real locomotive of regional development also recently had its own spell of political and social crisis. The region is notable for hosting the creation of the Bank Group in 1963 and accounting for its first loan to Kenya in 1967 for a road project.

The bulk of Bank Group cumulative lending to the region by 2007 went to agriculture with as much as 24. 5 %. It is however to be noted that combined Bank Group lending to infrastructure with transport alone receiving 21%, was over 42 % of the cumulative approvals in 2007.

Countries, total land area and population

East Africa comprises the following 12 counties with a total land area of 5.668 million sq km. or 18.7% of the continent’s area: Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.  With a sub regional population of 252.4 million people or 27.3% of the African population in 2006, East Africa has an average population density of 2. 3 per sq. km.

GDP/GNP per capita and Bank Group country categories in the region

The GNP per capita in 2005 ranged from US 100 for Burundi to US$ 8290 for Seychelles, the highest in Africa which is also the only country in East Africa, eligible for AfDB resources. The other 11 countries are eligible for ADF resources only and have limited access to ADB resources for financing private sector and enclave projects.

Cumulative Bank Group lending in the region as at the end of 2007

From 1967 to the end of 2007, East Africa obtained a total of UA 6.7 billion (US$ 10.6 billion) or 16.2% of the cumulative Bank Group loans and grants approvals. Within the region the major beneficiaries of Bank Group lending include Ethiopia received the largest of the approvals (US$ 2. 7 billion or 40%, followed by Tanzania (28%), Uganda (28%) and  , Kenya (22%).

Sectoral distribution of Bank Group lending to the region

The sectoral distribution of Bank Group commitments shows that agriculture received  UA 1.64 billion (US$ 2.6 billion) or 24.4% followed by transport ( 21.7%), multisector (14.2%), social (12.8%), water and sanitation (9.5 %),  power (9.4%),  finance (3.3%), industry (2.7%) and communications (1.7%). Thus infrastructure comprising transport, energy, communications, water and sanitation received by far the largest share of the cumulative lending amounting to UA 2.84 billion (US$ 4.5 billion) or as much as 42.2 % of the cumulative approvals.