Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El Sisi expressed appreciation for the vital role played by the African Development Bank in supporting development issues in the African continent, especially in light of the growing economic challenges at the international level.
The President’s remarks came during the opening ceremony on Tuesday of the 58thAnnual Meetings of the Board of Governors of the African Development Bank (AfDB), which Egypt is hosting in Sharm El-Sheikh, under the slogan of “Mobilisng Private Sector Financing for Climate and Green Growth in Africa”.
In his speech, the President also affirmed that Egypt continues to support efforts to achieve economic development for the countries of the African continent, at both the regional and international levels.
The President said that the Russian-Ukrainian war and international political tensions have added unprecedented complications that are severely disrupting global supply chains and causing sweeping waves of inflation.
“This scene has been reflected more strongly on the economies of developing countries, including the economies of the African countries, which already suffer from several internal challenges,” the President said.
He added that such challenges require unconventional ideas to find financing solutions to address pressing issues such as climate change and sustainable development.
In this regard, the President highlighted the size of financing needs for the countries of the African continent, according to the estimates of the United Nations and the African Development Bank.
Africa needs $200 billion annually to achieve the sustainable developmentgoals, $144 billion annually to address the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and $108 billion annually to finance projects to prepare and raise the level of infrastructure, the President said.
He also referred to the role of the African Development Bank in providing appropriate financing solutions for the needs of the countries of the continent that achieve the difficult equation between providing the huge funds necessary to achieve development aspirations on the one hand and reducing the risks of these funds on the other hand.
The President also called on multilateral financial institutions to reconsider the criteria and conditions that qualify countries to obtain soft loans so that they can be available to low- and middle-income countries, especially in light of the escalating cost of borrowing and the increase in debt service burdens.
The President also highlighted the problem of climate change and its effects on the African continent. He said that the negative repercussions of climate change are increasing on the least developed countries, which is evident in the countries of the African continent.
These changes, the President said, lead to high rates of drought, widening desertification, and a decline in agricultural crop productivity.
Estimates indicate that the risks associated with drought only in the African continent have led to losses exceeding $70 billion, in addition to causing a decrease in the agricultural productivity growth of the continent by about 34%.
The President said that Africa needs $3 trillion to meet its financing needs in order to face the negative effects of climate change until 2030.
The President added that during COP27, which was held in Sharm el-Sheikh last year, an agreement was signed to establish a fund dedicated to providing the necessary financing to compensate for loss and damage for countries affected by floods and drought and other climatic disasters.
The President said that this necessitates the need to motivate the private sector to play a greater role in providing the necessary financing to promote environmentally friendly projects, while intensifying the mechanisms for using clean energy sources, and approving the necessary policies and procedures for that.
Yesterday’s inauguration witnessed the participation of a number of African heads of state and government and various regional institutions, in addition to a large number of finance ministers, central bank governors, representatives of the private sector, academics and development partners from the member states of the African Development Bank.
