AfDB, Japan Sign $350 Million Loan Agreement To Support Africa’s Private Sector

 The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)have signed a JPY 44,100,000,000 (350 million dollars) loan to finance the Bank’s support for private sector operations in Africa.

According to a statement from the bank on Thursday in Abuja, the loan is under the Enhanced Private Sector Assistance (EPSA) initiative, a component of Japan’s Official Development Assistance to Africa.

In August 2022, at the Eight Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 8) in Tunis, signed the fifth version of EPSA four billion dollars.

The signing ceremony for the private sector concessional loan occurred at JICA’s headquarters in Tokyo, between JICA President Dr Tanaka Akihiko and AfDB’s President, Dr Akinwumi Adesina.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN),   Adesina is in Japan to discuss investment opportunities in Africa with senior government officials, large Japanese companies, development partners, parliamentarians and the African diplomatic corps.

 The JICA’s president said the loan represents a crucial step in Japan’s efforts to work with AfDB to support Africa. 

According to Tanaka, Africa faces the challenge of navigating multiple compounded crises, including debt sustainability issues and the war’s impact in Ukraine.

He said: “The private sector in Africa is fundamental in creating jobs for the prosperity and progress of Africa.

"Although the private sector has been confronting unprecedented economic and social pressures, we are confident that the Bank’s Non-sovereign Operations supported through this concessional loan will play an essential role in addressing these pressing issues.”

On the need to create jobs for young people, the JICA president said: “It is silly not to take advantage of active youth in Africa. 

“In Africa, you have an abundance of youth, but in Japan, we have an abundance of an old population.”

Tanaka said it is important to explore ways of promoting interaction between Japan’s university students and those of Africa to foster an exchange of knowledge and skills.

He agreed that JICA should hold further discussions with AfDB to look into some issues raised by the AfDB president.

He said this includes digitising primary healthcare operations and establishing the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation to be hosted in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali.

The AfDB president thanked the government of Japan as well as JICA, for their continued support to the Bank and Africa.

Adesina invited JICA to collaborate with AfDB in other critical areas, such as refining the food and agriculture delivery compacts developed by African countries, during a January food summit held in Senegal to tackle the continent’s food insecurity.

“JICA’s support will be crucial in implementing the Special Agro-processing Industrial Zones, which will be the biggest game changer of Africa’s agriculture.

"It will transform rural economies, reduce food loses, process and add value to crops produced in rural areas and create jobs,” Adesina added.

The AfDB boss urged JICA to support young people to go into agriculture, adding that Youths were Africa’s best asset, but they lacked access to finance.

He said: "The Bank is establishing youth entrepreneurship investment banks to provide young people with financial and technical support throughout the business cycle.”

JICA and AfDB signed the first private sector assistance loan in 2007.

To date, the Bank and the government of Japan have signed eight non-sovereign loans totalling 1.85 billion dollars.

 So far, the loans have contributed to support 51 projects, mainly credit lines and equity to regional development finance institutions, private equity funds and project finance for infrastructure public-private partnerships.