The Bank has earmarked FCFA 2,200 billion of its own resources for the new development programme to project Africa. The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) is bracing up to disburse US$4 billion, about FCFA 2,200 of its own resources for over five years to finance development projects in Africa. The money is part of a US$12 billion about 6,600 needed to execute the special programme for the development of Africa.
The President of the Islamic Development Bank Group, Dr. Ahmad Mohamed Ali, made the disclosure yesterday during the opening ceremony of the sub-regional ministerial forum on the implementation of the special programme for the development of Africa (SPDA). The Yaounde forum, hosted by the Monte Febe hotel, seeks to take stock of the progress made in the implementation of SPDA, assess the extent to which IDB and member countries have faired since the start of the programme and constraints so as to jointly seek ways of surmounting the challenges. Since 2008 when the programme was validated, IDB president said strides have been made to pursue their objectives of helping member countries to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, promote sustainable development and ensure a solid and lasting economic growth.
Africa, Dr. Ahmad Mohamed Ali said, needs a special programme as it currently has the largest regional membership of the bank, paradoxically with the biggest number of low income countries. The programme is in line with the bank’s 2020 four-pillar vision which seeks to transform the development landscape of its member countries. The pillars include poverty reduction and human development, infrastructure development, regional integration, development of the Islamic finance industry, private sector development as well as capacity development. The IDB president urged member countries to increase their contribution to the Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development so that the dream could come true.
Participants from the bank’s member countries, besides assessing the path covered are also using the Yaounde forum to scan development projects that could benefit from the programme’s financing. Between 2003 and 2007, IDB, officials said, provided US$3 billion in financing to Sub-Saharan African member countries. Various speakers at the opening ceremony yesterday like Cameroon’s Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Louis Paul Motaze, lauded the bank for what they termed significant contribution to Africa’s development. Regional integration, the Minister said, has been facilitated through the financing of trans-national road networks, regional multipurpose dams for irrigation and hydroelectricity like the Songloulou dam in Cameroon.
The challenge, participants agreed, remains poverty reduction where pro-poor and other enabling activities are still yearning for financing.