AfDB provides 42m people improved access to water, sanitation

The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group has provided about 42 million people with access to improved water and sanitation through its African Development Fund (ADF) initiative.

Dr Akinwumi Adesina, the President of the AfDB Group, said this at an event to mark the ADF at 50 on Thursday in Accra, Ghana.

The ADF is the concessional financing window of the Bank Group that provides low income Regional Member Countries (RMCs) with concessional loans and grants.

The fund also provides guarantees as well as technical assistance for studies and capacity building in support of projects and programmmes that spur poverty reduction and economic development.

He said the fund had also financed no fewer than 2,750 projects in the last five years on the continent.

According to him, ADF has connected 15.5 million people to electricity, supported 74 million people with improved access to agriculture, 50 million people with access to transport.

Some of the ADF beneficiaries said the fund has assisted them to improve their standard of living.

Ms Sigrid Schenk-Dornbusch, the Head of Division, Regional Development Bank, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany, said the country would stand fast with the fund to make the continent better.

The ADF was created in 1972 and became operational in 1974.

Some of the ADF eligible countries are Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Madagascar, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Burundi, among others.