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Canada steps up backing for AfDB
The African Development Bank will receive an additional USD 1.1 billion in support from the Canadian government as the world's major economies continue their growing financial interest in the continent.
The Canadian government has increased its financial support for African finance, with a USD 1.1 billion commitment to the African Development Bank (AfDB) in the form of temporary callable capital.
"Canada is demonstrating its commitment to African countries and our confidence in the African Development Bank," said Canada's minister of international development and for women and gender equality, Maryam Monsef, speaking at a sideline event of the World Bank-International Monetary Fund spring meetings, where the funding was announced.
She continued: "The African Development Bank is a key partner for Canada and we are committed to supporting the bank's African member countries," adding a commitment to ensuring that "no less than 50% of bilateral development assistance is dedicated to sub-Saharan Africa by 2021-2022".
Akinwumi Adesina, the president of the AfDB, thanked Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and said: "Canada's commitment and support is a huge boost to the African Development Bank. It will allow the Bank to strengthen its Triple A rating and increase lending to member countries while discussions are ongoing among all shareholders for a general capital increase."
Monsef called for other countries to follow suit in providing additional capital to AfDB, saying she hoped "that this announcement will facilitate the general capital Increase negotiations".
Adesina also used the World Bank-IMF platform to call on the United States private sector to increase its investment in the continent.
Canada has been an AfDB member since 1983 and the new commitment made it the fourth-largest shareholder outside of the African region. The country owns USD 4.64 billion in AfDB shares, of which USD 4.3 billion is callable capital and USD 339 million is paid-in capital.
It comes at a time when many of the world's major economies are increasing their investment in Africa, whether in the form of state or private sector support, with the two often linked.
French President Emmanuel Macron recently concluded a tour of East Africa with a commitment to USD 2.8 billion in French business investment, while the United Kingdom has plans to invest USD 4.5 billion by 2022 and Japan is being highly proactive in its approach to the continent.
Meanwhile, Chinese and Russian activity has caused considerable debate, with China's President Xi Jinping announcing an additional USD 60 billion last year and Russia now very active in Africa, prompting the US government to be highly critical of the pair, accusing them of "predatory" conduct, when announcing its own policy in late 2018.