As Africa’s premier development finance institution, the African Development Bank has kept faith with its mission by positioning itself at the centre of Africa’s transformation in line with its 2013-2022 Ten Year Strategy.

Anchored on two pillars – inclusive growth and gradual transition to green growth – the strategy has infrastructure development, regional integration, private sector development, governance and skills and technology as focus areas of the Bank’s intervention.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) formally signed on Wednesday, May 27 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, in the prelude of the 50th AfDB Annual Meetings, a USD 100 million unfunded Risk Participation Agreement (RPA) with FirstRand Bank S.A. which the two banks will share the default risk on a portfolio of eligible trade transactions originated by African issuing banks in Africa and confirmed by FirstRand Bank.

The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) realised a 15.3-percent increase in its operations turnover in 2014 compared to 2013 despite the challenging global and regional economic environment, according to AfDB 2014 Annual Report.

Support to infrastructure accounted for over half of the US $7.6 billion invested in the Regional Member Countries (RMCs) during the year, representing a 15.3-percent increase over the 2013 funding portfolio.

For a continent which has consistently posted robust economic growth in the past decade, recent reports that the continent is the bastion of inequality recording 42.6 on the Gini Coefficient Index (a standard measure of income equality) is quite disturbing.

Trends in inequality in African and other developing countries

African economies registered 3.9% average GDP growth in 2014 compared to the 3.7% in 2013. This reflects resilience to global and regional shocks which affected the continent last year, according to the African Development Bank Group’s Annual Report, which was released Wednesday, May 27 in Abidjan.

Despite the negative impacts of low commodity prices, the Ebola epidemic in West Africa as well as the fundamentalist and military insurrections witnessed in many countries, the continent achieved considerable growth, but with sharp variations between regions and countries.