AfDB approves US$ 271 million for Egypt's food security and economic resilience support programme
Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) - The African Development Bank (AfDB) Board of Directors has approved a loan of US$271 million to finance Egypt’s Food Security and Economic Resilience Support Programme to support efforts to mitigate the impact of the global shocks on the domestic economy from the Russia-Ukraine conflict and to preserve resilience.
The programme includes two major components: Support for the Food Security Response and Build Private Sector and Fiscal Resilience.
A statement by the Bank said the first component seeks to increase national agricultural productivity and mitigate food security risks for people in vulnerable situations.
The programme will support broad-based growth by increasing agricultural productivity and sustainability by setting additional incentives to encourage local farmers to grow wheat and increasing their share of subsidised fertilisers.
The second component will help enhance Egypt’s private sector and fiscal resilience as a resilient private sector can be instrumental in reducing the economic and social impacts of the exogenous shocks.
Mohamed El Azizi, AfDB Director-General for North Africa, explained that this new operation integrates emergency measures as well as structural measures.
The project comes through multi-donor stand-alone budget support for Egypt (US$ 97.3 million) from the AfDB and other co-financiers, and the African Emergency Food Production Facility with total finance of US$ 173.7 million approved by the Board of Directors in May 2022.
-0- PANA MA 19July2022
