Africa Development Bank: Strives Promptly for Industrialization of the African Landmass

By Abdul Rahman Bangura– 

NEW AFRICA DAILY NEWS (NADN) Freetown, Sierra Leone- As a facet of its workouts to record Africa Industrialization Day 2020, the African Development Bank (AfDB) has exhorted the African mainland to expedite industrialization for the modification of African thrifts.

“Industrialization, where we add value to what we competitively produce and then export, and also trade among ourselves on the back of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) within a market of 1.3 billion people, should be prioritized and delivered,” announced Solomon Quaynor – the bank’s Vice President, Private Sector, Infrastructure & Industrialization, in a statement marking Africa Industrialization Day.

Quaynor emphasized that the COVID-19 crisis had honed the necessity to stimulate industrialization and advised a greater role for the private sector, comprising as a partner to the public sector.

“Resilience is key, and that means no matter the external shocks in the future, we should rebuild so that our people, particularly youth and women who have our households, have jobs and better incomes,” he announced.

The AfDB figures Industrializing Africa as one of its High-5 key strategic aims, critical for the transformation of African economies. The bank proceeds to fund operationalization of the AfCFTA. In August 2019, the institution expanded a $ 4.8 million grant to support the establishment in Ghana of the AfCFTA Secretariat. The bank is working with African countries that are nurturing policies for enactment of the AfCFTA, enabling them to build capacity and clout opportunities furnished by self-reliant trade.

When businesses can trade across borders, then the industry can expand, economies can fix, and countries can move up the value chain, according to the Bank’s 2020 Annual Development Effectiveness Review (ADER) published last week. The report suggests that the bank’s investments in 2019 benefited one million people. Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) that benefited from bank projects trebled their turn over to $1 billion.

For New Africa Daily News Abdul Rahman Bangura Reports,  Africa Correspondent

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