The President of the African Development Bank Group, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, says African countries must build coordinated partnerships with the Arab region to address critical developmental challenges limiting the Continent’s sustainable growth.

He said the key nagging issues are food security, energy transition, youth employment, and infrastructure development.

Dr Adesina was speaking at the Leaders’ Breakfast Meeting which saw the launch of the Arab-Africa Financial Consortium and the celebration of the BADEA Prosperity Partnership which is commemorating its 50 years of Arab-Africa cooperation. 

He said energy offered enormous opportunities for cooperation between the Gulf countries and Africa, adding that the Gulf countries were investing heavily in energy, especially in renewable energy, green hydrogen, and green ammonia, which could help Africa in its energy transition.

The President said Africa needed to unlock potentials for its green credentials and rare minerals as it held deposits of global reserves of critical minerals like 79 per cent of cobalt, 44 per cent of manganese, and 21 per cent of graphite, including lithium and copper.

Some other key areas he mentioned were the value of the electric vehicle industry and the battery energy storage system which would reach $57 trillion by 2050, therefore, Africa must explore the opportunities through the development of green metals industrial value chains, instead of the export of raw materials. 

“The establishment of a 10,000-tonne lithium-ion battery pulsar factory in Africa will be three times cheaper than in the United States, Poland, or China.” Dr Adesina said. 

The Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) was established under the resolution of the 6th Arab Summit Conference at Algiers (28 November 1973). The Bank began operations in March 1975 to strengthen economic, financial and technical cooperation between Arab and African countries. 

It is a financial institution owned by eighteen member countries of the League of Arab States (LAS) which signed its Establishing Agreement on 18 February 1974.

The Bank is an independent International Institution enjoying full international legal status and complete autonomy in administrative and financial matters. It is governed by the provisions of its Establishing Agreement and the principles of international law.

Under the patronage of the African Union Champion for Financial Institutions, the Arab-Africa Financial Consortium (AAFC) was launched to bring together a powerhouse of finance in both regions and the Consortium aims at establishing a club of leading multilateral financial institutions and development finance institutions in Africa and the Arab world. 

Dr Sidi Ould Tah, President, BADEA, in espousing the contribution of the Bank over the last 50 years, said BADEA had been the only institution fully dedicated to the African continent to collaborate to foster development and strengthen historical, geographical and cultural ties between the two worlds.

He urged the two regions to deepen the partnerships to unlock the potential for sustainable growth, adding that both entities had an obligation to work to create a transformative agenda that would help Africa lead in economic, financial and technological advancement.