A senior official at the African Development Bank (AfDB) on Thursday called on the Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states to position themselves to benefit from their Bank.
Executive Director for the Southern Africa Group I Constituency Cornelius Dekop who paid a courtesy call to SADC Secretariat in Botswana’s capital Gaborone, Botswana on the 15th November 2019 said SADC can achieve that by submitting and making follow-up on high impact regional projects.
He revealed that the Bank has approved a 125 percent Seventh General Capital Increase (GCI) in order to meet its ambitious programs and to maintain the Bank’s AAA rating.
According to Dekop, the resources of the African Development Fund would also be replenished in order to meet the needs of the Bank’s Low Income Regional Member Countries.
The GCI 7 will run till 2031, with a repayment period of eight years for Middle Income Countries, and 12 years for Low Income Countries.
For her part, SADC Executive Secretary Dr Stergomena Lawrence shared the same sentiments that the current SADC portfolio of projects at the Bank was not satisfactory.
“In this regard, the Secretariat with the support of the Bank has developed a list of SADC priority infrastructure projects, some of which are ready for immediate inclusion into the Banks pipeline of projects, and further engagements with relevant SADC Member States are ongoing,” said Lawrence-Tax.
KO/as/APA