North Africa constitutes six countries: Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia. All the countries in the subregion are ADB countries, except for Mauritania which is an ADF country. Mauritania can only borrow from ADF resources, except for private sector and enclave projects which can be financed from ADB resources. Loan and grant approvals for the subregion totaled UA 1.47 billion in 2010, which is a rise of 40.0 percent above the 2009 level of UA 1.05billion. North Africa’s approvals represented  40.1 percent of total Bank Groupapprovals, which makes it the main beneficiary subregion during the year.

The benefiting countries were: Egypt, UA 651.4 million; Morocco, UA 519.7 million; Tunisia, UA 296.6 million; Mauritania, UA 3.6 million; and Libya, UA 0.6 million (which was an MIC-TAF grant).

The key projects approved for North Africa were: the Suez 650 MW Steam Cycle Thermal Power Plant in Egypt; the Project to Increase Capacity on the Tangiers–Marrakech Railway Line in Morocco; Road Project VI in Tunisia; the Drinking Water Supply in the Rabat Casablanca Coastal Area in Morocco; Egyptian Refining Company Project in Egypt; the Support to the National Program for Taxi Replacement Scheme in Egypt; Entreprise Tunisienne d’Activités Pétrolières (ETAP)–Hasdrubal Oil and Gas Field Development Project in Tunisia; and the Public Administration Reform Support Program, Phase IV (PARAP IV) in Morocco.

The sectoral distribution of loan and grant approvals in 2010 shows that infrastructure  attracted the largest share at UA 1.10 billion (74.4 percent). Within this dominanting frastructure sector, the energy subsector received the biggest tranche, at UA 458.3 million (41.8 percent), followed by transportation, at UA 454.5 million (41.5 percent), and water supply andsanitation, UA 182.7 million (16.7 percent). The allocations to the other sectors were as follows: industry, mining, and quarrying, UA 147.1 million (10.0 percent); social, UA 144.2 million (9.8 percent); and multisector,  UA 85.2 million (5.8 percent). This sectoral split is consistent with the Bank Group’s operational focus of prioritizing infrastructure development – a key driver of economic growth – in line with its MTS (2008–2012).

The Bank Group started operations in the North Africa subregion in 1968 – one year after the other subregions. During the period 1968–2010, North Africa was allocated the highest cumulative loan and grant approvals of UA 16.25 billion, representing 29.1 percent of total Bank Group loan and grant approvals. Among the countries in the subregion, Morocco received the largest share of the cumulative approvals, followed by Tunisia, Egypt,  Algeria, and Mauritania. Libya received anMIC-TAF grant of UA 0.6 million in 2010, which was the first time the country had benefited from Bank Group resources. The four main beneficiary sectors are infrastructure (43.0 percent), finance (20.0 percent), multisector (15.8 percent), and agriculture and rural development (8.5 percent).