<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A senior leadership team from the African Development Bank Group (www.AfDB.org<\/a>) has arrived in the southern African capital Gaborone, on the first leg of an official visit to Botswana and Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The delegation is led by Acting Vice President, Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery Yacine D. Fal. It includes Prof. Kevin Chika Urama, Acting Chief Economist and Vice President for the Economic Governance and Knowledge Management Complex; Director General for the Southern Africa region, Leila Mokaddem; Deputy Director General Kennedy Mbekeani, Martha Phiri, Director of the Bank’s Human Capital, Youth and Skills Department, and Jean-Guy Afrika, the African Development Bank\u2019s Acting Director for the Regional Integration Coordination Office.<\/p>\n In Botswana from 4-5 April, the team will meet with several government and industry leaders, including the deputy minister of Finance Olesitse H. Masimega. Their discussions will centre on the Bank\u2019s support to Botswana\u2019s economic transformation agenda and a post-Covid-19 economic recovery. The Bank has provided $137 million in loans to support Botswana’s economic recovery from the pandemic.<\/p>\n The delegation will also hold talks with the Southern African Development Community\u2019s Deputy Executive Secretary for Regional Integration, Dr. Thembinkosi Mhlongo. They will discuss areas of strategic interest to the SADC region, including the implementation of the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), and the operationalization of the African Continental Free Trade Area. SADC\u2019s main objectives are to achieve development, security and economic growth, to alleviate poverty and support the socially disadvantaged of the southern Africa region through regional integration.<\/p>\n The visit underscores the African Development Bank\u2019s firm commitment to the southern African region\u2019s growth prospects and to deepen engagement with SADC at the strategic and technical levels, Fal said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will take stock of ongoing regional integration efforts. We need to continue to encourage the free flow of goods and services across our borders, removal of tariff barriers and to scale up regional value chains,\u201d Fal said.<\/p>\n The African Development Bank Group\u2019s active portfolio in Botswana amounts to $223 million. \u00a0The portfolio is dominated by multi-sector projects which account for the largest segment.\u00a0Sixty-two percent of this falls under the Economic Recovery Support Programme, 36.3% to financial support, with the rest financing the country\u2019s agriculture, industrial and power sectors.<\/p>\n In Zimbabwe, from 5-8 April, the delegation will meet President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa and other members of government. Talks will focus on Bank support to Zimbabwe\u2019s arrears clearance. The team will also meet executives of the African Capacity Building Foundation, as well as private sector and various non-regional partners.<\/p>\n In Zimbabwe, the Bank Group currently supports 15 initiatives valued at $176 million. These include the rehabilitation of infrastructure in the energy, water and sanitation sectors, financed through resources from the ZimFund (https:\/\/bit.ly\/3r06Zwn<\/a>).<\/p>\n Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Development Bank Group (AfDB).<\/i><\/p>\n Download images:<\/strong>\u00a0https:\/\/bit.ly\/3NEVjZs<\/p>\n Contact<\/strong>: About the African Development Bank Group:<\/strong> Source<\/a> A senior leadership team from the African Development Bank Group (www.AfDB.org) has arrived in the southern African capital Gaborone, on the first leg of an official visit to Botswana and Zimbabwe. The delegation is led by Acting Vice President, Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery Yacine D. Fal. It includes Prof. Kevin Chika Urama, Acting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":84308,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/uploads\/socialshare.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2461],"tags":[258,256,4380,7089,4718,2462,5989,400,6768,5192,257,5092,7527,254,8505,6250,4686],"class_list":["post-84307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-botswana","tag-africa","tag-africa-news","tag-african","tag-bank","tag-botswana","tag-botswana-news","tag-development","tag-director","tag-general","tag-group","tag-news","tag-official","tag-presidents","tag-south-africa-today","tag-vice","tag-visit","tag-zimbabwe"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/uploads\/socialshare.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAmba Mpoke-Bigg
\nCommunication and External Relations Department
\nemail: a.mpoke-bigg@afdb.org<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nThe African Development Bank Group is Africa\u2019s premier development finance institution. It comprises three distinct entities: the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Development Fund (ADF) and the Nigeria Trust Fund (NTF). On the ground in 41 African countries with an external office in Japan, the Bank contributes to the economic development and the social progress of its 54 regional member states. For more information: www.AfDB.org<\/a><\/p>\n
\n
South Africa Today Africa \u2013 Southern Africa Botswana<\/a> News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"