AfDB in Cape Verde to strengthen cooperation.
The management of the African Development Bank (ADB) will start a visit to the Cape Verde archipelago, to reinforce cooperation with the country. There will be eight Executive Directors who will participate in the mission.
ADB's visit
Several Executive Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB ) Group will begin a consultation mission on Monday, March 13, 2023, to Cape Verde, a country supported by the Bank in the face of exogenous shocks linked to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Eight Executive Directors will participate in the mission:
Désiré Guedon (Gabon, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Comoros, Mali, Niger, Senegal), Ahmed Zayed, (Egypt, Djibouti), Malika Dhif (Morocco, Tunisia, Togo), Stéphane Mousset (France, Belgium, Spain) , Brahim Bouzeboudjen (Algeria, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar), Xenia Nomfundo Ngwenya (South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho), Takaki Nomoto (Japan, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Austria, Brazil).
They will be accompanied by advisers Adama Rouamba, Mamadou Diop, Fanaye Alemayeu, the Bank's Deputy General Manager for West Africa, Joseph Ribeiro, Senior Economist Joel Daniel Muzima and Program Officer for the country, José António da Graça Pinto.
AfDB Directors will have several exchanges with the highest authorities in the country, including:
Prime Minister, José Ulisses Correia e Silva, Deputy Prime Minister, Olavo Avelino Garcia Correia, who is also Minister of Finance, Business Promotion and Digital Economy, and Governor of the Bank for Cape Verde, and Adalgisa Barbosa Vaz, Secretary of State for Business Development and Alternate Governor of the Bank for Cape Verde.
Meetings are also scheduled with sectoral ministers, including Industry, Commerce and Energy, Public Administration, Agriculture and Environment and Infrastructure, as well as with the Secretaries of State for Economy and Digital Finance.
Directors will also meet with various development partners, representatives of the private sector and Cape Verdean civil society organizations, before visiting various projects and infrastructure financed by the AfDB. Also on the agenda are the Cabeólica wind farm and Casa do Cidadão.
Casa do Cidadão is the one-stop-shop for administrative matters, business licensing and registration, and the water mobilization project for agriculture. The field visits will also take the directors to the volcanic island of Fogo with its strong agro-industrial potential, where they will visit agricultural projects, fruit production and the SuiFogo factory, which produces cheese and sausages.
The AfDB/Cape Verde partnership
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has excellent relations with Cape Verde. It has financed many structuring projects, including most recently the modernization of the Port of Maio , inaugurated in September 2022 by the President of the Bank's Group, Akinwumi Adesina, and the Technology Park , whose inauguration is scheduled for April.
As Africa's leading development finance institution, the AfDB is uniquely positioned to continue to provide long-term financing and advisory services to Cape Verde in order to accelerate the diversification of its economy and reduce its vulnerability to exogenous shocks. .
The Bank is now one of the country's preferred development partners. Since 1977, when it started operations in Cape Verde, it has invested around US$609,8 million in various sectors, including transport, energy, agriculture, water and sanitation, telecommunications and governance.
AfDB financed the construction, expansion and modernization of the Praia airport, which increased the number of daily passengers from 400 to 1.000, the construction of transmission lines and electricity distribution networks, and digital development to make the country a center of development technology and the agricultural value chain, among other projects.
As at 31 January 2023, the AfDB Group's active portfolio in Cape Verde included four operations worth US$68 million.
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Picture: © DR
