AfDB: 42 million people get improved water, sanitation

The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group has provided about 42 million people with access to improved water and sanitation through its African Development Fund (ADF) initiative.

Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, the President of the AfDB Group, said this in Accra, Ghana, at an event to mark the ADF at 50.

The African Development Fund (ADF) is the concessional financing window of the Bank Group that provides low income Regional Member Countries (RMCs) with concessional loans and grants.

The fund also provides guarantees as well as technical assistance for studies and capacity-building in support of projects and programmmes that spur poverty reduction and economic development.

The AfDB President said the fund had also financed no fewer than 2,750 projects in the last five years on the continent.

“The ADF has connected 15.5 million people to electricity, supported 74 million people with improved access to agriculture, 50 million people with access to transport.

“Life is not equal, yet all lives must be equal. Everyone has a right to a decent life.

“ADF has been expanding the lives of the people.

“The fund has been working to reduce inequality and provide access to electricity.

“The most important part of the bank is the development. I believe that you put us here to fast track Africa’s development, because we are way too behind,” Adesina said.

Some of the ADF beneficiaries said the fund has assisted them to improve their standard of living.

Ms Selena Avevor, Chairperson of the Obiman Women Association, a smallholder empowerment association in Ghana, said the fund had assisted them to empower about 50 rural women.

Avevor said the association had trained women in different skills such as soap-making and baking with the assistance of the ADF.

“We had 20 women that we were training before but when the fund started supporting us, we increased the number to 50 rural women.

“The ADF built a hostel for us, sunk borehole and helped us to have an office.

“We are looking that we will get more women to train, have higher markets with the support of the ADF,” she said.

Ms Clara Shuaibu, another benefiary of the Savannah Investment Programme (SIP) funded by the ADF, said the fund provided birds and feeds for her to start a poultry business:

“I am now an employer of labour because of the ADF,” she said.

Some of the ADF contributing countries commended the Bank for utilizing the fund.

Mr Kentaro Ogata, the Deputy Vice Minister for International Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Japan, commended the passion of the AfDB toward addressing Africa’s challenges:

“We will like to see African countries grow and achieve sustainable future.

“We may be able to contribute to the funding but we don’t have the expertise.

“We will work together with those with the knowledge like the AfDB.”

Ms Jessica Isaacs, Senior Advisor USA, AfDB, said:

“We want to partner with Africa for stable and sustainable growth.

“That is why we choose to partner with the ADF because we believe in resilient, inclusive Africa.”

Ms Sigrid Schenk-Dornbusch, the Head of Division, Regional Development Bank, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany, said the country would stand fast with the fund to make the continent better.

The ADF was created in 1972 and became operational in 1974.

Some of the ADF eligible countries are Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Madagascar, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Burundi, among others.

Source: NAN