African Development Bank Group Annual Report 2022: Bank Group Shows Strong Performance and Commitment to African Countries | African Development Bank

The African Development Bank Group has released its 2022 annual report. The report shows solid performance throughout the year, with a significant increase in lending to the Bank Group’s regional members in the face of a challenging global environment for Africa.

“Amid multiple global shocks, the [African Development] Bank has once again demonstrated its unwavering commitment to African countries through targeted actions tailored to strengthening resilience across the continent,” said Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, in the report’s foreword.

Africa saw real gross domestic product growth slow to 3.8 percent in 2022, from 4.8 percent in 2021, in response to inflation, rising fuel prices and rising geopolitical tensions. The lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the increasing impact of climate change and adverse weather also played a role in slowing GDP growth.

Bank Group approvals of $8.2 billion in 2022 were significantly higher than in the previous two years ($6.3 billion in 2021 and $6.0 billion in 2020) and closer to 2019 levels of US$10.1 billion, reducing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on approvals in recent years.

The African Development Bank responded to the continent’s food crisis and disruptions to the supply of critical inputs to food production by establishing the US$1.5 billion African Emergency Food Production Facility to increase production of several essential food commodities and provide fertilizer and extension services to to offer.

As a major push for gender equality in 2022, all of the Bank’s approved sovereign operations have been categorized using the Gender Marker System. The majority of these surgeries — 63 percent — contributed directly to women’s access to social services and skill enhancement in the High 5s. The bank reached $1 billion in approved loans cumulatively (through the end of 2022) to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) owned by women in 27 countries, according to the report.

The Bank Group used different strategies for its activities.

The Strategy for Addressing Fragility and Building Resilience in Africa (2022–2026) sets out the approach to addressing fragility by building more resilient institutions, economies and societies in all its African countries.

The Strategy for Quality Health Infrastructure in Africa (2022-2030) sets out a framework for the Bank’s involvement in health infrastructure development, and the Knowledge Management Strategy (2022-2031) outlines the institution’s vision to become the continent’s leading knowledge provider. for African countries, to enable them to achieve better results in relation to their development priorities.

The Bank has made remarkable progress in scaling up efforts to address the impacts of climate change. By 2022, 100 percent of the Bank’s generation-related approvals were based on renewable energy. This compares to a share of 56 percent in the period 2010–2015, before the launch of the New Deal on Energy for Africa in 2016.

On the 27^e United Nations Climate Change Conference, held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt in November 2022, the bank joined African countries and leaders to “amplify Africa’s voice and priorities on climate change”.

The end of the year marked the historic sixteenth replenishment of the African Development Fund (ADF), the African Development Bank Group’s concessional lending window for low-income countries. Development partners have pledged a record $8.9 billion to ADF. This included $429 million for the Climate Action Window, established to mobilize resources to support climate adaptation actions in ADF countries. The fund received new contributions from Algeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Morocco.

The Bank Group maintained a triple-A rating with a stable outlook from all four major global rating agencies. “The rating continued to reflect the bank’s solid capacity adequacy, robust risk management, prudent financial management, high liquidity and strong shareholder support,” the report said.

Click here for more information about the 2022 annual report