Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) – The African Development Bank (AFDB) and the Popular Bank of China (PBOC) signed Thursday an agreement which establishes a co-financing fund of US$2 billion called “Africa Growing Together Fund (AGTF)”.
A statement made public at the AFDB annual general assembly meeting in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, says that it is expected particularly that the resources from AGTF will be allocated, over a 10-year period, to finance development projects in Africa, guaranteed or non guaranteed by the government, with AFDB.
“AGFT is an important step in the many years of relationship between China and AFDB group on the one hand, and for Africa in general on the other,” said AfDB president, Donald Kaberuka, during the signing of the agreement.
The governor of the Popular Bank of China, Zhou Xiaochuan, praised AFDB’s achievements over the past 50 years, as well as progress it had made possible in the promotion of growth and poverty alleviation.
“The rich AFDB experience, its mobilization power and its strong culture in the achievement of results make the bank the ideal partner for China for the allocation of resources to back growth and long-term development of the continent,” said Mr Xiaochuan.
The deputy president and financial manager of the AFDB group, Charles Boamah, said AGTF would allocate annually US$200 million to large scale initiatives.
“The financial allocation will be based on conditions similar to those of loans made by AFDB for identical projects,” said Mr Boamah, adding that the facility would focus on the success of similar systems, such as Nigeria’s special fund, which had been operating for about 40 years now.
AGTF will be established as soon as possible to serve as co-financing of a number of projects before the end of this year, according to AFDB.
