THE board of governors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a fresh general capital of $117billion making the lender’s capital reach a historic $318 billion.

The development was announced by the President of the AfDB, Akinwumi Adesina at the closing ceremony of the AfDB meeting for 2024 in Nairobi, Kenya.

AfDB’s board of governors is the highest decision-making organ of the Bank, composed of one Governor and one Alternate Governor appointed by each Member Country.

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Adesina said, “In another historic decision, you, the governors, collectively approved new general callable capital for the African Development Bank with $117 billion. What a momentous occasion. What a show of confidence. What a show of commitment.

“Dear governors, you showed once again that you believe in the African Development Bank. Your extraordinary support will make the bank stronger while maintaining its AAA as it drives the accelerated development of Africa.

“You showed governors, commitment to the bank to be bigger, bolder, and better. Your decision has lifted the authorized general capital of the bank, your bank, from $201bn to $318bn. The bank is now bigger and we will be bolder and better.”

Adesina said the AfDB is encouraged that its stakeholders recognise its financial innovations globally, including the public capital on the global capital market.

He added: “You, our governors, commend the success of our efforts, working together with our partner institutions and sister institutions in the American Development Bank on the re-challenging of special joint rights to multilateral development banks and the approval of the use of this special joint rights SDR as hybrid capital by the board of the International Monetary Fund.

“And I want to once again reiterate here our own appreciation to Kristalina Georgieva and all the staff and the board members of the International Monetary Fund for this major development. We look to you, our shareholders, to help make the re-challenging of the SDRs now a reality.”

Quaynor, the Bank Group president’s Special representative for the Africa Investment Forum Yacine Fal. Representatives of the platform’s Founding Partners, Deutsche Bank, African Risk Capacity Group, Japan International Cooperation Agency, KfW, the German state-owned investment and development bank, Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, IFC, Swiss Re Group, and the Confederation of Chinese investors among others, were also present.

The Africa Investment Forum’s Founding Partners are the African Development Bank Group, Africa50, Afreximbank, the Africa Finance Corporation, the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the European Investment Bank, the Islamic Development Bank and the Trade and Development Bank.

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