On 29 May, the African Development Bank (AfDB) made a grant of €12 million to the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo in support of the project to modernize the country’s public finance system.  The agreement took place in Arusha, Tanzania, where the AfDB is currently holding its Annual Meetings. 

Liberia, today in Arusha, Tanzania, received an African Development Bank Group grant of USD 46.50 million within the context of the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) and an African Development Fund loan worth USD 6 million to finance the country’s Smallholder Agricultural Productivity Enhancement and Commercialization (SAPEC) Project.

The grant and loan agreements were signed by Liberia’s National Investment Commission chairman, Natty B. Davis, and the AfDB’s Vice-president for Sector Operations, Kamal Elkeshen.

Millions of people living in the Baro-Akobo-Sobat (BAS) area of the Nile Basin are to benefit from a range of multi-purpose water resources projects to be planned by the Nile Basin Initiative.  On May 4, the African Development Bank approved a €2 million grant from the African Water Facility to finance the development study needed to attract the investments required to implement them.

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) approved on 16 May in Tunis, an equity investment of USD 100 million to Agvance Africa, the first agribusiness-focused Fund of Funds on the African continent. The strategic objective of Agvance Africa is to increase private investment flows into the agribusiness sector on the continent to address growing food security concerns and unleash the largely unexploited potential of African agriculture and agribusiness sectors.

The African Development Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved a total of USD 13.95 million (UA 9.00 million ) through a grant mechanism on 16 May 2012. The grant will enable the African Community of Practice for Managing for Development Results (AfCoP) to mainstream Managing for Development Results (MfDR) into the policies and strategies of RMCs and RECs.