Fitch AAA Rating: Adesina commends AfDB Board of Directors, staff members

The African Development Bank President Akinwunmi Adesina has commended the bank’s Board of Directors and members of staff over Fitch AAA rating accorded the bank. Adesina made the commendation on his verified twitter handle @akin_adesina on Friday. The News Agency of Nigeria(NAN), reports that the global credit rating agency Fitch Ratings had affirmed the African Development Bank’s long-term credit rating AAA with a Stable Outlook. In the rating the importance of the bank’s public mandate, its governance, and the excellent quality of its risk management were highlighted. Adesina said the affirmation was a strong endorsement of the AfDB’s financial strength and profile, engendered through its shareholders support.

Meanwhile, the bank’s Acting Vice President for Finance and CFO, Hassatou N’Sele said the nod by Fitch Ratings was elating. He said, “this stellar credit rating allows the African Development Bank to provide financial resources to African countries at favourable levels to develop their economies. “This is extremely important in the current environment of rising interest rates and issues around debt sustainability.” In a related development, AfDB’s role in shaping the global development landscape received additional recognition from Publish What You Fund, Punlish What You Want, a global campaign for aid and development transparency, ranked the bank’s Sovereign Portfolio first out of 50 global development institutions. The ranking was done in its 2022 Aid Transparency Index. Based on its strong financial position, the bank had inaugurated game-changing initiatives for Africa.

This ranges from helping African countries build back from COVID-19 recovery, to tackling global food insecurity crisis sparked by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. As the global food crisis brought growing fears of food insecurity in Africa, the bank approved a 1.5 billion dollar African Emergency Food Production Facility. It is meant to provide 20 million small holder farmers on the continent with certified seeds and access to agricultural fertilizers. This will enable them to rapidly produce 38 million tonnes of food. This will further see a 12 billion dollar increase in food production in two years. It will further build on the success of its flagship Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) programme. TAAT had delivered heat-tolerant wheat varieties to 1.8 million farmers in seven countries. Some 40 countries have already applied for funding from the Facility. AfDB has also been instrumental in the establishment of the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation in Rwanda. The foundation is meant to enhance Africa’s access to the manufacture of medicines, vaccines, and other pharmaceutical products. These would help hasten the continent’s post-pandemic recovery.