The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) on Wednesday, July 1, 2015 approved a US $22.5-million loan to the Republic of Congo to help finance the country’s Investment Climate and Forest Governance Support Project (PACIGOF).

The project aims to promote robust and inclusive growth by improving the business climate and diversifying the Congolese economy. It will strengthen the capacity of private sector support institutions and promote private initiative; as well as improve forest/timber sector governance.

Côte d’Ivoire’s President Alassane Ouattara headed a top-level line-up of political and business leaders on Tuesday, June 30 in Abidjan to launch the African Energy Leaders Group (AELG) in West Africa, with concrete plans to drive sector reforms and a pipeline of bankable investment projects for sustainable energy access across the region.

The African Development Bank and the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) are poised to boost business opportunities in Africa’s cocoa sector, including youth employment and empowering women participation.

Both institutions recently met in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, in order to see how they can cooperate to foster the transformation of the cocoa industry in Africa.

Cocoa is one of the five Cs (cocoa, coffee, cotton, cassava and cashew) that have been selected for support under AfDB’s new Agriculture and Agri-business Draft Strategy.

High-level officials are meeting in the Ugandan capital Kampala from June 29-30, 2015 to give the green light on a proposed action plan on mainstreaming managing for development results (MfDR) at the national and regional levels.

The African Development Bank’s (AfDB) Resident Representative, Septime Martin, and the Minister of Finance of Angola, Armando Manuel, signed a loan agreement on June 24, 2015 for the amount of US $123.77 million related to the Institutional and Sustainability Support to the Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Service Delivery Project.