African Dev't Bank Supporting Operations with 1.3 Billion USD in Ethiopia, Says President

Addis Ababa /ENA/ February 24/2023 The African Development Bank (AfDB) has operations, largely in the energy, transport, water and sanitation, and infrastructure, worth about 1.3 billion USD in Ethiopia, African Development Bank Group President Adesina said.

In an exclusive interview with ENA, the AfDB president said among the exciting projects that the Bank is involved are special agro-industrial processing zones where you can process and add value to agricultural products.

The second one, is the regional power transmission line that goes all the way from here to Djibouti and also Somalia and even all the way to Sudan, Adesina said, adding that Ethiopia can now sell electricity to Kenya again.

“So, it is a big component of our work in Ethiopia. And the other area where we also invest heavily in Ethiopia is the digital economy because, as you know, the economies are becoming more and more digital. We're (therefore) investing quite a lot in digital infrastructure in the country,” the president pointed out.

AfDB is also doing significant work in making sure that people can have access to water and sanitation, it was learned.

Moreover, “I am amazed with what has been able to be done in the urban area of Addis Ababa.We have provided a lot of work for an upgrade infrastructure right here and I am delighted to see how beautiful the city looks like.”

According to the president, agriculture is another part of the Bank's work to feed Africa. “And we are having tremendous success.”

Adesina said, “Right here in Ethiopia we supported the prime minister and his government to have access to heat tolerant wheat varieties in the Ethiopian lowlands. And these varieties Ethiopia started cultivating on 5,000 hectares in 2018; and when I spoke to the prime minister yesterday, you're at 1.4 million hectares. Ethiopia for the first time in history is now a net exporter of wheat. Just imagine how that is.”

African leaders are very focused on making sure that Africa can feed itself and we developed plans for Africa to do that, he noted.

AfDB’s mission is to fight poverty and improve living conditions on the continent through promoting the investment of public and private capital in projects and programs that are likely to contribute to the economic and social development of Africa.