AfDB Earmarks $500m For Women In 2022  … Raises $5bn For  Businesses

President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, says the bank would lend $500 million to women in 2022.
This follows the bank’s Affirmative Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA), which is raising the sum of $5 billion with the support of the French President, Emmanuel Macron and G-7.
This was disclosed  in a statement Adesina posted, weekend, in which he also said the bank paid out $483 million to financial institutions to lend to women’s businesses in 2021.
Adesina, whose statement is coming as the bank commenced its Annual Meetings for 2022,  commended the Board, Management and staff  for their relentless work.
He also thanked all the bank’s 81 shareholder countries for their incredible confidence and support.
Adesina in his remark said, “Our rapid Covid-19 response facility helped towards stabilising African economies: it trained 130,000 health workers, provided social protection for about 30 million vulnerable households, and provided advisory support for 300,000 small and medium-sized businesses.
“To tackle food crisis from Russia/Ukraine crisis, our Board of Directors approved last week a $1.5 billion Africa Emergency Food Production Facility to support 20 million farmers to produce 38 million metric tonnes of food. The bank partnered globally. We delivered.
“To help Africa adapt to climate change, the bank is partnering globally. Together with Global Centre for Adaptation, with former UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, we are mobilizing $25 billion in support of Africa.
“With the support of President Emmanuel Macron and G-7, our Affirmative Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) is raising $5 billion for women businesses.
“In 2021, we paid out $483 million to financial institutions to lend to women businesses. We will lend $500 million for women in 2022.’’
The AfDB boss said the board had approved a crisis response facility of up to $10 billion based on rigorous risk assessments when the Covid-19 pandemic struck, adding that it launched a $3 billion Covid-19 social bond on the global capital markets, the highest ever US dollar-denominated social bond in world history.
He said, “The African Development Bank was ranked by Global Finance as the Best multilateral financial institution in the world in 2021. The African Development Fund was ranked by CGD as second best in the world, ahead of all 28 concessional financing institutions in developed countries”.