South Korea/AfDB Group and Korea sign $28.6 million grant agreements to support African development

On Wednesday, September 13, 2023, in Busan, the African Development Bank and the Government of Korea signed two financing agreements to boost Africa's development agenda worth $28.6 million.

This funding is in addition to $600 million in co-financing under the Korea-Africa Energy Investment Framework, agreed with the Korean government in 2021. This framework helps African countries build their human capacities and develop their energy sectors.

The agreements were signed in Busan, during the 7th Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation (KOAFEC) Ministerial Conference, jointly organized by the Bank and Korea. KOAFEC began on Tuesday.

The new financing will primarily support energy access, agricultural transformation and knowledge and capacity building in a number of African countries. The financing will be disbursed in three tranches of $4.6 million in 2023, $24 million in 2024 and 2025 to the African Development Bank Group.

The President of the African Development Bank Group, Mr. Akinwumi Adesina, and Korea's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, Mr. Kyungho Choo, signed the first agreement for $28.6 million.

Mr. Choo introduced Korea as "atrue partner for African countries", adding that the government would do its best to contribute to Africa's sustainable growth and development.

Mr. Adesina said the additional funding from Korea was timely, as the country celebrates the 40th anniversary of its membership of the African Development Bank. He praised the government for its commitment to a strong partnership between the African Development Bank and Korea.

"Therelationship between Korea and Africa is unique," said Mr. Adesina. "There ismuch to learn from Korea, which has gone from a poor country dependent on international aid to a donor country in the space of a single generation," Mr. Adesina added.

The second agreement, between the African Development Bank and Statistics Korea, will strengthen cooperation in statistics and improve the capacity of African countries to produce quality data. The Chief Economist and Vice President of the African Development Bank, Kevin Urama, and the Commissioner of Statistics Korea, Hyoung il Lee, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective institutions.

The senior officials said that under the agreement with Statistics Korea, an agency of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the two institutions would be able to work together on a joint basis.conomy and Finance, the two institutions will work together to raise awareness of statistical issues and share new data sources and methods to improve the quality of statistics, including big data.

The agreement document identifies possible areas of cooperation, such as the African Development Bank's African Information Superhighway for evidence-based decision-making. The African Information Superhighway is a mega-network of open data platforms electronically linking all African countries and 16 regional organizations.

Figures from the African Development Bank show that the Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation Trust Fund is the largest of the Bank's active bilateral trust funds in terms of contributions received and portfolio size. The fund, which had received $108 million in contributions by December 31, 2022, has financed 203 projects since its inception.

Source: www.agenceecofin.com