Nigeria is among the African countries that will benefit from 3.2 million Swiss francs donated to the African Development Bank (AfDB) by The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs of the Government of the Swiss Confederation.
A statement on Thursday said that SECO and AfDB signed two agreements to fund African initiatives on the sidelines of the Bank’s 2019 Annual Meetings in Equatorial Guinea.
It added that SECO contributed three million Swiss francs to the Entrepreneurship Lab for innovative young entrepreneurs and 200,000 Swiss francs to the Urban and Municipal Development Fund for Africa, which aims to help African cities plan and manage urban growth and climate-resilient development by improving governance and basic services.
The statement described the E-Lab as a component of the AfDB’s ‘Boost Africa’ strategy, that aims to provide innovative young entrepreneurs with financing, technical assistance and broader ecosystem support through incubators, accelerators, fund managers and others.
Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa have been named as countries that would participate in the pilot of the initiative, the statement added.
GIK/APA