With the retirement of Mr. Charles Boamah who has reached the mandatory 62 years retirement age at the African Development Bank (AfDB) Ms.Tshabalala has been tapped to replace the former Senior Vice President of the Bank. Mr. Boamah retired from the Bank today after 23 years of meritorious service.
Ms. Bajabulile “Swazi” Tshabalala
The President of the African Development Bank Group, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina announced the appointment of Ms. Bajabulile “Swazi” Tshabalala as Acting Senior Vice President of the Bank with immediate effect. Ms. Tshabalala, currently the Vice President for Finance and Chief Finance Officer for the African Development Bank Group, joined the Bank on August 1, 2018. Ms. Tshabalala will replace, in this acting capacity, Mr. Charles Boamah, the former Senior Vice President of the Bank, who retires effectively from the Bank today after 23 years of meritorious service to the institution.
Commenting on the appointment, the President of the African Development Bank Group, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina said “Ms. Tshabalala has demonstrated highly commendable senior leadership management qualities and brings a strong perspective on results orientation and delivery that will be important as the Bank moves ahead with the delivery of its programs and commitments. I am very pleased to appoint her to step up into this role as Acting Senior Vice President, as the Bank manages this senior leadership transition, to ensure stability and continuity of our work and operations. I am confident she will do very well. She will continue to hold simultaneously her position as Vice President for Finance and Chief Finance Officer in this interim period”.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has endorsed the candidacy of African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina for a second term at the helm of the institution. The decision was announced at the end of the fifty-sixth ordinary session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS, held on Saturday in Abuja, Nigeria.
African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina
“In recognition of the sterling performance of Dr. Akinwumi Adesina during his first term of office as President of the African Development Bank, the Authority endorses his candidacy for a second term as the President of the bank,” ECOWAS said in a communique issued after the meeting.
Adesina is the eighth elected President of the African Development Bank Group. He was elected to the five-year term on 28 May 2015 by the Bank’s Board of Governors at its Annual Meetings in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, where the same electoral process will play out next year.
Adesina is a renowned development economist and the first Nigerian to serve as President of the Bank Group. He has served in a number of high-profile positions internationally, including with the Rockefeller Foundation, and was Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development from 2011 to 2015, a career stint that was widely praised for his reforms in the agricultural sector. The former minister brought the same drive to the Bank, making agriculture one of the organization’s priority areas.
Speaking earlier at the opening ceremony, Adesina reminded the group of the African Development Bank’s investments in the region. “You can always count on the African Development Bank – your Bank,” Adesina told delegates.
ECOWAS President Jean-Claude Kassi Brou commended the Bank’s involvement in West Africa and said it had provided “invaluable technical and financial interventions…in the implementation of numerous projects and programmes”.
The ECOWAS summit included a progress report on the region’s economic performance. It noted the role of the African Development Bank in the continent’s transformation and called for greater cooperation in order to fund projects in West Africa.
“The Authority takes note of the region’s improved economic performance, with ECOWAS real GDP growing by 3.3% in 2019 against 3.0% in 2018, in a context characterised by a decline in inflationary pressures and sound public finances,” the statement said.
“It urges the Member States to continue economic reforms and ensure a sound macroeconomic environment in Member States, with a view to accelerating the structural transformation of ECOWAS economies and facilitating the achievement of the monetary union by 2020.”
The Authority commended efforts made on currency and monetary policy convergence in ECOWAS and laid out plans to advance the movement. These efforts are a key part of the regional integration agenda championed by the African Development Bank, as exemplified by the African Continental Free Trade Area, which aims to become the world’s largest free trade zone.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
If Africa must be part of the 4th industrial revolution, then its young teeming population must acquire the tools of transactions for the 21st Century. To this end, Microsoft is partnering with the African Development Bank (AfDB) to launch the Coding 4 Employment Platform aimed to promote a continuous learning culture among young people and build their capacity to shape the continent’s future.
Director of Human Capital Youth &Skills Development at the African Development Bank Hendrina Doroba
The ‘Coding for Employment’ digital training platform is an online tool to provide digital skills to African youth, wherever they are across the continent. According to the Director of Human Capital Youth &Skills Development at the African Development Bank Hendrina Doroba, the youth employment and skills development challenge is a complex issue that requires systemic thinking and bold partnerships to address the existing skills gap and link youth to decent and sustainable employment. “The skills training platform is a testament to the impact that such partnerships can achieve and the Bank looks forward to strengthening similar partnerships” She added.
The platform teaches technical courses such as web development, design, data science and digital marketing and will be constantly adapted to respond to market demand. It is accessible on mobile devices, even in low internet connectivity settings and has an affordable, easy-to-navigate, secured and private interface.
Ghada Khalifa of Microsoft noted that the launch of the platform is “a defining challenge of our time is ensuring that everyone has equal opportunity to benefit from technology,” he added that “forward-thinking initiatives such as the digital training platform represent our commitment to helping drive the momentum needed. Though there is still much work to be done, we believe that through dynamic partnerships such as these, we can help build a knowledge-based economy in Africa that leaves no person behind.”
The Coding for Employment Program is a crucial part of the African Development Bank’s strategic agenda to create 25 million jobs by 2025, and to equip 50 million African youth with competitive skills. The Bank piloted the program in five countries (Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire) in partnership with The Rockefeller Foundation and Microsoft and is currently developing 14 ultra-modern centers specialized in ICT and entrepreneurship skills training for youth.
The goal is to scale up the program to 130 centers of excellence across the continent over a 10-year period. It will create nine million jobs by building synergies with the public and the private sector globally to deliver demand-driven, agile and collaborative skills to empower young people to become innovative players in the digital economy. The Coding for Employment training platform can be accessed here (https://bit.ly/2P4ePRK) across 54 African countries.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
THE Administrative Tribunal, an independent judicial arm of the African Development Bank (AfDB), has ordered the Bank to pay full compensation to a former employee for wrongful termination of contract. The employee, simply identified as S.A., a former Vice President in charge of infrastructure, private sector and regional integration, was relieved of his appointment by President Akinwumi Adesina, as part of his desire to put together a senior management team, after his emergence as president.
Although the former Vice President conceded to a mutual termination of his employment, he, however, contested the terms of his disengagement. The Bank offered him payment of six months’ salary in lieu of notice, and additional allowance of 16 months’ salary and benefits among other entitlements. However, the employee was not satisfied as he claimed the severance package fell short of his contractual entitlements. He insisted on being paid 22 months’ salary as stipulated in his employment contract. Moreso, he claims that his termination was not approved by the board of the Bank, contrary to standard procedure and general practice of the bank, as it pertains to his position.
In reliefs sought, the employee, through his counsel asked the Tribunal to declare as null and void, and unacceptable, the separation terms and package offered to him by the Bank. He submitted that for there to be an agreed separation, the terms of separation must be acceptable to both parties, and not unilaterally imposed by the Bank. Therefore, the Bank should be mandated to adhere strictly to its practice of paying employees in full the remaining parts of their contract. Responding, the Bank asked the Tribunal to dismiss the applicant’s claims for lack of merit.
In its judgment, the Tribunal headed by Justice Salihu Alpha Modibo Belgore, ruled in favour of the applicant, declaring his termination of contract as unlawful. The Tribunal ordered the Bank to pay him an equivalent of 22 months’ salary and benefits, together with interests. He was also awarded the equivalent of three months’ salary for moral damages. In addition, the cost of six months’ rent was to be paid by the bank to the applicant and £40,000 as legal costs.
The scathing judgment reads in part: “the Tribunal acknowledges that the President of the Bank (Akinwumi Adesina) needs to have confidence in his senior advisors and it is not for Tribunal to second guess the wisdom of his decision to terminate the appointment of the applicant…. That said, having elected to terminate the applicant’s employment early, the President was required to do so in a humane manner in conformity with the rules governing the employees of the Bank”.
Similarly, the Tribunal also frowned at the punishment meted to another employee, a Canadian national simply identified as S.M., who was engaged by the Bank as Chief Evaluation Officer in 2013. Although his appointment was confirmed in October 2014, it was subsequently cancelled for no justifiable reason. To worsen matters, his performance was poorly rated and he was shortly dismissed by the Bank for alleged unsatisfactory service. Not satisfied, the appellant contested his inappropriate evaluation and humiliation.
In its ruling, the Tribunal ordered the Bank to pay 12 months’ salary as damages to the Canadian for failure to abide by its evaluation Rules, 12 months’ salary as damages for mental stress and suffering and £10,000 for legal costs. According to a former Director with the AfDB “these two cases are a sample of the humiliation several staff have suffered in recent times.”
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has committed EUR 12.5 million to a private equity fund which supports small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in francophone West Africa.
The investment in Adiwale Fund 1 is a private equity fund run by Abidjan, Ivory Coast-headquartered Adiwale Partners, targeting a fund size of EUR 75 million which it will use to take minority stakes in SMEs with a view to scaling up the businesses. The aim will be investments in the consumer goods and services sector, business services and manufacturing.
Here Is The Deal
The fund has identified Ivory Coast, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Mali as the main subject of interest, followed by Togo, Benin and Ghana as secondary targets.
The consumer goods and services investments will include education and healthcare, while business services will include transport, logistics, IT and construction. Pharmaceuticals, agri-processing and chemicals will be incorporated into manufacturing.
Francophone West Africa
AfDB director for industrial and trade development Abdu Mukhtar explained the investment corresponded with the bank’s ‘High 5’ goals.
“The Fund focuses on SMEs in francophone West Africa which accounts for nearly 19% of West Africa’s GDP but attracts only 7% of private equity capital. As these companies grow, they cross the borders and integrate across different countries,” he said in a statement.
As governments seek to diversify their economies and investors look for opportunities for growth, the World Bank and International Finance Corporation have been among the bodies promoting SMEs across Africa.
Adiwale Partners Announces Closing of Adiwale Fund I at €50 million
Adiwale Partners has also announced the first closing of its first fund, Adiwale Fund I L.P. at €50 million. The fund has attracted investors from Africa, Europe and North America. Investors include development finance as well as commercial investors.
Adiwale Fund I will provide growth capital to SMEs in Francophone West Africa, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso as well as Togo, Benin and Guinea. The fund will be acquiring minority positions in 10 to 12 investments, with tickets of €3-8 million per transaction. Key investment themes for the fund are: rising incomes and changing consumer behaviours, expansion of the local supply chain (increased sophistication of local economies), import substitution and company’s backward integration. The fund will as a consequence invest in three key sectors: Consumer-related, including health and education; Business Services (transport & logistics, IT, construction-related services, etc) and Manufacturing (chemicals, pharma, …)
Jean-Marc Savi de Tové, Managing Partner at Adiwale Partners, said:
“We are very pleased with this first closing which attracted leading institutions that have a keen interest in the development of Africa. The closing demonstrates our expertise and knowledge of the region and it shows the confidence that our institutional investors have in our activities. We are hopeful to reach our target size of €75 million within a year”.
He added: “Francophone West Africa attracts less than 7% of private equity investments, where it represents 19% of the GDP of the West Africa region. Locally groomed private equity firms like Adiwale Partners could help close the gap. Today, we have a strong pipeline of attractive projects which our team is already executing on.”
Vissého Gnassounou, Managing Partner at Adiwale Partners, also added:
“Francophone West Africa’s pool of entrepreneurs is constantly growing and evolving, and has dramatically changed over the past two decades. The region remains the second fastest growing region in the world, and should continue to post strong growth, as our currency remains stable and provides visibility, countries embark on strong reforms, and borders become more fluid for businesses and for people.”
About Adiwale Partners
Adiwale Partners is an independent private equity fund manager established in 2016 by seasoned private equity and capital markets professionals. Its private equity experience spans 20 transactions in Francophone West Africa, as well as over 30 fund investments. It offers growth capital and operational support to mid-size companies looking to strengthen their core activities and expand in West Africa and beyond.
We like entrepreneurs with a genuine ambition for the region and with a good record of execution, the fund noted on its website.
We want to help more companies scale up their operations and contribute to the overall economic activity of the region and to job creation. We are a responsible investor, seeking to build long-term value through sustainable growth in our portfolio companies. We want to build a better environment for our kids
Based in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, the fund operates from the economic centre of the Francophone region.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world
The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina has received The Emeka Anyanoku Lifetime Achievement Award. Presenting the Award, the former Commonwealth Secretary-General Emeka Anyaoku described Dr. Adesina and the African Development Bank’s work as “legendary, unprecedented and worthy of emulation.”
The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina
The Award which is under the auspices of The Hallmarks of Labour Foundation, a non-profit that recognizes Africans who have achieved success through hard work, honesty, integrity, and justice in every field of human endeavour took place in Lagos recently. Previous recipients of the award include Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka.
Thanking the foundation for the recognition, Adesina said that the African Development Bank had helped 181 million people directly through its investments in the past four years
“There is still much to do. We have gone some way, climbing the steep mountainside of Africa’s development, yet there’s still a long way to go until we reach the mountaintop,” he told the gathering of top government officials, industry leaders, and diplomats.
The Bank has connected 16 million people to electricity and provided 70 million people with improved agricultural technologies to achieve food security. The African Development Bank also gave 9 million people access to finance from private sector companies, provided 55 million people access to improved transport, and 31 million people with water and sanitation.
Adesina congratulated his fellow awardees and urged them to be relentless in their efforts to build humanity.
“Recognition is never the expectation or endgame when you are passionate about your work. But when one’s modest contributions and efforts are found worthy of honor, it is both a surprise and a delight,” he noted.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.
The precarious situation of many African countries, especially those whose economies depends wholly on petroleum came to the fore yesterday during a forum in New York. This came as President of African Development Bank President (AfDB) Dr. Akinwumi Adesina unveiled ambitious plans to scrap coal power stations across the continent of Africa and switch to renewable energy. This unveiling took place at the United Nations climate talks early this week. While addressing leaders and officials from almost 200 countries in New York, on the sidelines of the ongoing United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Dr. Adesina outlined efforts to shutter coal-fired power plants and build the “largest solar zone in the world” in the arid Sahel belt. He noted that coal is the past, and renewable energy is the future, saying that the African Development Bank is getting out of coal.
Dr. Akinwumi Adesina
This development according to Dr. Adesina is in line with the Bank’s $500 million green baseload scheme which will be rolled out in 2020 and is set to yield $5 billion of investment that will help African countries transition from coal and fossil fuel to renewable energy. He also talked about plans for $20 billion of investments in solar and clean energy that would provide the region’s 250 million people with 10,000 MW of electricity.
The United Nations Climate Summit was attended by presidents, princes and government ministers from around the world as they faced mounting pressure to reduce heat-trapping gas emissions and slow the global rise in temperatures. The UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres also warned of the “dying fossil fuel industry” and said it was still not too late to keep the global rise in temperatures below the benchmark figure of 1.5 degrees Celsius. The UN Scribe added that it will require fundamental transformations in all aspects of society on “how we grow food, use land, fuel our transport and power our economies”.
This is coming at a time many African countries are discovering new oil and gas deposits and exploration activities are going on at frenzied speed, to that effect, analysts say that Africa is in a very tight spot as many of them are presently focusing on growing their economies on fosil fuel at a time renewable energy and most especially electric vehicles are fast becoming the order of the day.
The UN says mankind must reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming to about 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures to stave off the worst-case predictions of scientists. The Summit was part of the run-up to the international climate talks in 2020, which is the next deadline for countries to make significant emissions reduction pledges under the 2015 global warming deal.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.
Africa’s premier development finance institution the African Development Bank has launched and priced a US$ 2 billion 3-year Global Benchmark bond which will be due by 16 September 2022. This is the Bank’s first US$ benchmark of the year. The Bond which was launched on September 11 is the Bank’s second Global Benchmark of 2019, following the EUR 1 billion 10-year priced in March 2019. This has brought the amount raised by the Bank to US$ 4.4 billion and executed 61% of its borrowing program for the year.
Hassatou Diop N’Sele, Treasurer of the African Development Bank
This very transaction received strong support from investors globally which is a sign of level of confidence investors have on the Bank as its order books has reached US$ 2.8 billion with 53 investors participating. This high quality of the order book is illustrated by the strong participation of Central Banks and Official Institutions, taking 64% of the allocations.
The African Development Bank is taking advantage of favorable investor sentiment post summer break to access the 3-year tenor, in spite of volatile market conditions ahead of the Fed Meeting the following week. The mandate was announced on Tuesday, September 10, with Initial Pricing Thoughts of Mid-Swaps + 13 basis points (bps) area.
The transaction met strong interest from the outset, with Indications of Interest in excess of US$ 1.8 billion (excluding Joint-Lead Managers interest) when order books officially opened at 08:00 London time the following morning, with initial price guidance of Mid-Swaps + 13bps area.
Momentum continued throughout the European morning, with orders in excess of US$ 2.5 billion around 11:20 London time. At this time, final pricing was set at Mid-Swaps + 13bps. Following the close of the order book in the US, the size of the transaction was set at US$ 2 billion by 14:20 London time.
The transaction was priced at 16:24 London time with a re-offer yield of 1.679%, equivalent to a spread of 8.75bps vs UST 1.5% 15 September 2022, the issuer’s tightest print vs US Treasuries to date.
Speaking of the development, Hassatou Diop N’Sele, Treasurer of the African Development Bank said that the Bank is delighted with this successful dollar Global Benchmark, and particularly pleased by both the very high quality of the order book and the solid participation of African Central Banks. The African Development Bank achieved its tightest ever spread to US Treasuries, and grateful to her investors across the world for this outcome, and the financing it will bring to the African continent.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.
The best time to do agriculture in Africa is probably now. African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF), has secured $500 million for young ‘Agripreneurs’ across the continent to develop agriculture opportunities on the continent.
Here Is All You Need To Know
AGRF is the first ever forum for African agriculture, pulling together stakeholders across the agricultural landscape to discuss and commit to programs, investments and policies to achieve an inclusive and sustainable agricultural transformation across the continent.
The funding was raised from firms such as Dangote Farms, Press Agriculture, Pearl Dairies Ltd, and Fresh Ltd. In addition, a Unilever-IDH partnership committed $28.6 millions towards investments in small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) working in variety of food-related endeavors.
Some 17 country delegations presented investment opportunities worth in excess of $2 billion.
The proposed investments, coupled with support from various stakeholders, is anticipated to impact more than 15,000 smallholder farmers and create seven million jobs.
Mastercard Foundation announced plans to invest $500 million to launch a new Young Africa Works program. The initiative will provide a major infusion of capital to support the efforts of a new generation of young “agripreneurs” who are investing their talent in farming and other agriculture-oriented ventures.
The forum also set up a “Deal Room” that delivered some $200 million in new investments to support digital infrastructure crucial for powering innovative farmer services, significant actions on climate change adaptation, and the launch of a major food trade coalition.
The Agribusiness Deal Room at the AGRF was made possible with the support of core design partners, including the African Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF), AGRA, the African Development Bank (AfDB), CrossBoundary, GAIN, GrowAfrica, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, and the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The Deal Room also received advisory support from the World Economic Forum (WEF).
“The potential benefits of the AGRF to the African continent are beyond contention,” said Ghana President H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. “We must galvanize our collective resources and energy to fully exploit the opportunities it presents.”
The Agribusiness Deal Room saw private and public sector stakeholders commit over $200 million to develop and strengthen several value chains in Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Uganda and Eswatini.
Embracing the Potential of Digital Innovations for African Agriculture
The theme of this year’s AGRF was “Grow Digital: Leveraging Digital Transformation to Drive Sustainable Food Systems in Africa.” AGRF 2019 featured a rigorous and informative series of technical assessments, policy analyses, and political discussions that produced a new level of consensus that could dramatically accelerate efforts to use digital innovations to make farming in Africa more productive, profitable, sustainable and inclusive.
The discussions were anchored by the presentation of the Digitalisation of African Agriculture report from the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and Dalberg Advisors. Its key findings include the fact that some 71 percent of users of digital agriculture or D4Ag services across the continent are under 35. The CTA report found more than 90 percent of the market for digital services that support African smallholders remains untapped and could be worth more than $2.26 billion. The study also found nearly 400 different digital agriculture solutions are currently in play, serving 33 million registered farmers across sub-Saharan Africa.
The report estimates the number of registered farmers and the number of digital solutions are growing so rapidly that they are likely to reach the majority of the region’s farmers by 2030.
“Digitalisation can be a game-changer in modernising and transforming Africa’s agriculture, attracting young people to farming and allowing farmers to optimise production while also making them more resilient to climate change”, said Michael Hailu, Director of CTA.
There was much discussion at AGRF 2019 about the need for investments in the basic infrastructure and data systems that will provide the critical foundation for D4Ag services. To that end, there was news at AGRF that the World Bank plans to invest US $50 billion in Transforming Africa’s Digital Economy.
The Bank is committed to ensuring every African, including every African business and government, is digitally enabled by 2030. The investments include support for broadband infrastructure; digital skill development; digital platforms; digital financial services; and digital entrepreneurship. One key goal is to double access to broadband services across the continent by 2021.
The Forum Also Saw A New Alliance on Food Trade
The AGRF 2019 featured the launch of the new Africa Regional Food Trade Coalition. The Coalition was developed by a large and diverse coalition of leaders from the public and private sector. They are building on the foundation established by the new African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and market opportunities evidenced in the region’s $35 billion annual food import bill. The goal is to increase regional food trade via more predictable policies and mechanisms that encourage new agribusiness investments that capitalize on the rich diversity of farming ecologies across the continent.
A Regional Food Trade symposium showcased a number of data innovations that could help advance food trade in the region.
SMEs are Big Business in Africa Ag: The “Hidden Middle” Takes Center Stage
AGRF 2019 featured the launch of a provocative new report that busts a major myth of Africa agriculture: that there is a “missing middle” of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) available to power the region’s food systems. AGRA’s 2019 Africa Agricultural Status Report (AASR) presented new evidence that the “missing middle” is actually a “hidden middle” of SME-powered agri-food supply chains that recently has experienced a “quiet revolution.”
The report found that today, millions of SMEs are sourcing directly from millions more smallholder farmers across Sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for 64 percent of the volume of food consumed in the region. The report noted that the rise of SME’s has been largely unrecognized by policymakers, even as it has bridged gaps that previously separated most small-scale farmers from commercial markets.
“SMEs are the biggest investors in building markets for farmers in Africa today, and will likely remain so for the next 10-to-20 years,” said Dr. Agnes Kalibata, President of AGRA. “They were not missing, just hidden.”
For more information visit African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF)’s website
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.
“Morocco has become a key player in the economic integration of the African continent”. It is with this in mind that Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, expressed his desire to collaborate with the Cherifian Kingdom in the implementation of the “Desert to Power” programme. It was on the sidelines of the 4th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of the Pan-African Investment Platform Africa50, which ended on Wednesday, July 10, 2019, in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda.
The collaboration would allow Morocco to put its experience in the green energy sector at the service of the African continent. The “Desert to Power” operation would lead to the establishment of a “New deal for energy in Africa”. This AfDB programme, launched in 2017, aims to achieve universal access to energy throughout the continent by 2025. In particular, it will result in the installation of 10 GW of electricity from green energy.
As Akinwumi Adésina also pointed out, several projects are in the pipeline between Morocco and the AfDB, mainly in the infrastructure, governance and financial market integration domains. In 2016, Morocco inaugurated the Ouarzazate power plant located in the middle of the desert.
At the time, it was the largest solar power plant in the world. The country’s commitment to promoting wind and solar energy are key factors that have convinced the AfDB to turn to it to help it implement the “Desert to Power” project. A letter of intent to cooperate had already been signed to this effect on the 7th of November 2018 between the AfDB and the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (Masen).
The desert becomes an opportunity
The AfDB, through the “Desert to Power” programme, would like to use the solar potential of the Sahel countries to increase electricity production. AfDB estimates show that 64% of the Sahel population is without electricity. Yet the continent is twice as sunny as Europe. With the implementation of this initiative, more than 90 million Africans would have access to electricity for the first time ever. The “Desert to Power” project seems to be timely, at a moment when the energy deficit is estimated to cost between 2 to 4% of Africa’s annual GDP.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.
