The President of Egypt, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, has praised the African Development Bank's work in helping African countries deal with the impact of global economic challenges.
On Tuesday, El-Sisi met with the President of the African Development Bank Group, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, in Cairo.
Adesina, accompanied by the bank's Chief Economist and Vice President, Professor Kevin Urama, and Secretary General Professor Vincent Nmehielle, visited Egypt to familiarize himself with preparations ahead of the Bank Group's 2023 Annual Meetings, scheduled to be held in Sharm El-Sheikh from May 22-26.
The Bank's 2023 Annual Meetings will feature up to 13 heads of state and government, executive directors, development partners, and management to discuss Mobilizing Private Sector Financing for Climate and Green Growth in Africa.
During the meeting, President El-Sisi expressed his country's commitment to continue and increase cooperation with the bank in various development sectors.
The African Development Bank is working closely with Egypt to mobilize international climate financing to address the country's climate challenges, building the resilience of vulnerable systems and promoting sustainable development.
The African Development Bank is also leading the Just Green Transition (JGT) initiative, which has a pipeline of investment-ready projects worth $14.8 billion to tackle the Nexus of Water, Food, and Energy.
The Bank has already mobilized $2.3 billion, exceeding the initial target of $1.4 billion.
In addition, the Bank is supporting water desalination projects in Egypt. Adesina praised Egypt's efforts to tap into private sector finance for green growth initiatives, and the country's plans to issue a Green Panda Bond with a face value of $500 million in the Chinese capital markets by the end of June this year.
Adesina also met with the Governor of South Sinai Governorate, Major General (Rt) Khaled Fouda, who said the city of Sharm El-Sheikh was ready to host more than 2,000 delegates attending the bank's Annual Meetings in May.
Adesina also commended Egypt for its commitment to increasing the role of the private sector in the economy and its plan to privatize 32 state-owned entities worth $40 billion over the next four years.
The African Development Bank plans to provide Egypt with $133 million in additional financial support in 2023 to deal with macroeconomic instability caused by the continuing global compounded crisis. Last year, the Bank provided a $272 million policy-based operation in supporting Egypt's efforts to tackle the impact of the crisis.
At the meeting, Adesina said, “It is a very difficult world to be dealing with, and so as African Development Bank, our role is to support the accelerated development of African countries in financing their economic and social development agenda, and also building the resilience of their economies.
We help African countries to be able to deal with the series of shocks—whether it is climate, whether it is debt, whether it is recovering from the Covid-19 situation, or whether it is investing in the things they need for structural transformation of their economies.”
Present at the event were Egypt's Minister for International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat, Deputy Assistant Minister for Regional Economic Organizations Ebtisam Rakha, the Acting Central Bank Governor of Egypt, Mr Hassan Abdallah, who is also the Governor for Egypt of the African Development Bank, Dr Mohamadou Labarang, Cameroon Ambassador and dean of African Ambassadors in Egypt, and the bank's Executive Director Nomoto Takaaki.