The intervention comes in the form of a loan of 8 million Units of Account (US$ 11.8 million) approved today by the ADB Group. The fund will enable the ADF to immediately resume lending operations to the country. The new ADB Group assistance to post-conflict countries was approved on 19 July 2004.

Tunis, 29 October 2009 – The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group has approved a €40 million loan to Cape Verde to help the country respond to the impact of the global financial crisis while maintaining the momentum of its reform agenda. The loan will help to reinforce reforms, especially in the areas of public finance management and the business climate – the two components of the additional budget support to the Poverty Reduction Strategy Support Programme (PRSSP-II).

To this end, the Board of Directors of the African Development Fund (ADF), the concessional window of the Bank Group, on Wednesday in Tunis, approved a poverty reduction support loan of 50 million Units of Account (UA*), equivalent to 73.45 million US dollars for the country.

This budget support for fiscal year 2004/2005 will help the government implement its poverty reduction programme and achieve broad-based economic growth. The assistance will focus on agriculture, rural development, human capital and institutional development and structural reforms.

M. Omar Kabbaj aura des entretiens de haut niveau avec le Premier Ministre, le ministre des Finances et de la privatisation, le gouverneur de Bank Al Maghrib, le ministre des Affaires étrangères et de la coopération, le ministre de l’Education nationale et de l’enseignement supérieur, de la formation des cadres et de la recherche scientifique, le ministre des Equipements et des transports ainsi qu’avec le ministre du Tourisme, de l’artisanat et de l’économie sociale.

The support will come in the form of a loan of 21.9 million Units of Account (UA*), equivalent to 32.17 million US dollars, from the African Development Fund (ADF), the concessional window of the ADB, approved by its Board of Directors in Tunis on Wednesday.

The government estimates that poverty currently affects 60% of the population. With the support of the ADB Group, the country achieved a two-digit growth rate between 1995-1997, and maintained an annual growth rate of 7.7% up to 2002, to overcome a 50% economic decline caused by the 1994 genocide.