NEPAD, in my view, has achieved a lot for Africa – thanks to the visionary leadership of our founders: President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, former President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, former President Abdou Wade of Senegal, and late Hosni Mubarak, former President of Egypt, and late Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the former President of Algeria. 

NEPAD has put Africa’s agenda on the global scene, playing a critical role in the decisions of the G8 countries to invite African leaders to participate in G8 Summits and subsequently at G20 Summits.

The African Development Bank is proud to have been a lead financier and implementation partner of NEPAD over the years. Over the past 20 years, the Bank’s strategies have been designed with NEPAD in mind. The Bank’s support has spanned many areas, including regional integration, agriculture, trade, infrastructure, education, knowledge, and environment. To help support the infrastructure development in Africa, the Bank and NEPAD jointly coordinated the implementation of the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) since its inception. The Bank and NEPAD spearheaded the development of PIDA’s first Priority Action Plan, which consisted of a complex set of 51 programmes broken down into 434 action projects in transport, ICT, energy, and trans-boundary water.

In support of implementing the PIDA Priority Action Plan, the Bank provided $9 million to the PIDA Capacity Building Project for technical assistance to the African Union Commission, to NEPAD, and to the eight regional economic committees for pre-investment work, and of course to improve projects bankability and to bring them to financial close, and for implementation. The Bank is currently preparing a new financing of $9 million for PIDA Capacity Building Phase 2 to support a comprehensive resource mobilisation strategy for AUDA-NEPAD, which is scheduled for our board approval in early 2021. The Bank has been financing the NEPAD Infrastructure Project Preparations Facility, called NEPAD IPPF, which we created as a special fund within the bank. The Bank’s NEPAD IPPF has helped to galvanise and catalyse regional infrastructural investments worth $24 billion. 

The African Development Bank stands ready to continue provide strong support and mobilise resources for NEPAD and the African Union Commission. Together, we will achieve the Africa We Want - better and much faster.