JOHANNESBURG - The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the UN Industrial Development Organisation (Unido) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) yesterday to step up collaboration to boost Africa’s industrialisation.
The deal enables the bank and Unido co-operation on areas such as agro-industry development, circular economy, eco-industrial parks, investment in innovation and technology, enterprise development, trade and capacity-building, and access to finance, among others.
“In 2016 the bank launched its Industrialisation Strategy for Africa 2016-2025, which was the outcome of collaborative work with Unido and the UN Economic Commission for Africa,” said African Development Bank president Akinwumi Adesina. "The signing of the present MoU is key to our strategy’s implementation. The bank already benefits enormously from Unido’s expertise in developing policies, programmes and knowledge tools which support our member countries to industrialise.”
In 2017, the bank allocated $1.2 billion (R15.29bn) to industrialise Africa.