IDB JOINS HANDS WITH AFDB TO BOOST DEVELOPMENT

The signing last week in Jeddah of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) to cooperate

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August 17, 2022

The signing last week in Jeddah of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) to cooperate in co-investment in projects in member countries mutual to both multilateral development banks (MDBs) is long overdue. Under the MoU, the two MDBs will commit to contribute $500 million each in a $1 billion cooperation spanning three years starting in 2011 and based on the AfDB’s medium term strategy and the IDB special programme for the development of Africa (SPDA), whose main focus is to assist in scaling-up interventions in Africa in agriculture, infrastructure, water and sanitation, education and healthcare. A few years ago the IDB also launched the Ouagadougou Declaration signed in Burkino Faso in the mid-2000s during the IDB board of governors annual meeting. The Ouagadougou Declaration is a $2 billion 5-year programme investing in education, primary healthcare, technical assistance and capacity building. The programme has in fact disbursed over $2.38 billion to date and has been rolled over. “The objective of this co-financing MoU will be to foster economic development and social progress in order to coordinate co-financing projects and to promote economic development and technical cooperation in common member countries. This is aimed at reducing poverty level in the African continent and uplifting the level of revenues”, said AfDB vice-president Kamal El-Kheshen.