Tunis, 28 June 2006 – The Board of Directors of the African Development Fund, the concessional window of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, today approved a highly concessional loan of 50 million Units of Account (US$ 75 million or 88.2 billion Tanzanian Shillings) to the Government of Tanzania to support it’s efforts to reduce poverty and improve social indicators in the country.

Tunis, 28 June 2006 – The African Development Fund (ADF), the concessional window of the African Development Bank Group, on Wednesday approved a grant of 1.85 million Units of Account (US$ 2.8 million or 1.2 billion Congolese Francs) to finance an agricultural sector study in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The study seeks to collect reliable and up-to-date data in order to identify the problems of sustainable development of the agricultural sector and better orientate and plan future operations of the Bank and other development partners in the provinces covered.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group and the Ghanaian government on Tuesday in Tunis signed a loan agreement of UA 40 million, equivalent to US$ 63.81 million, to finance the Northern Rural Growth Programme (NRGP). The ADF loan is expected to cover 58.5% of the total cost of the programme which is jointly financed with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Ghanaian government in order to help the country address the problem of poverty in the region by creating sustainable rural agricultural production and increasing income-generating activities.

Tunis, 7 July 2006 – The campaign to check the spread of animal diseases within the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) will receive support from the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group following the approval in Tunis on Wednesday, a grant of 13.71 million Units of Account (UA*), equivalent to US$ 20.28 million by the Board of Directors of the African Development Fund (ADF), the concessional arm of the (AfDB) Group in Tunis on Wednesday.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group and the government of Ghana on Tuesday in Tunis signed a loan agreement of UA 27.6 million, equivalent to US$ 44 million, to finance the power systems reinforcement project. The objective of the project is to help the country reduce electricity losses, improve the reliability of power supply and expand access to electricity for people living in the Kumasi area.