AfDB, JICA sign $350ml loan agreement to support Africa’s private sector

Addis Ababa, April 26, 2023 (FBC) – The African Development Bank and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) signed a JPY 44,100,000,000 ($350 million) loan to finance the Bank’s support for private sector operations in Africa.

The loan comes under the Enhanced Private Sector Assistance (EPSA) initiative, which is a component of Japan’s Official Development Assistance to Africa.

The fifth version of EPSA, for an amount of $4 billion, was signed by the Bank and JICA at the Eighth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 8), held in Tunis last August.

The signing ceremony for the private sector concessional loan took place at JICA’s headquarters in Tokyo, between JICA President, Tanaka Akihiko and Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank Group.

JICA and the African Development Bank signed the first private sector assistance loan in 2007.

To date, the Bank and the government of Japan have signed eight non-sovereign loans totaling $1.85 billion.

The loans have so far contributed to support 51 projects, mainly credit lines and equity to regional development finance institutions, private equity funds and project finance for infrastructure public-private partnerships.

The government of Japan is one of the Bank’s biggest supporters. It contributed to the Bank’s largest ever General Capital Increase in 2019. In December 2022 Japan provided $534 million to the African Development Fund’s $8.9 billion sixteenth replenishment.