Strategy for agricultural transformation in africa

 
The Bank has contributed to agribusiness development in Africa through its private 
sector window.
Non-sovereign operations are categorized in three groups: agribusiness, 
aquaculture, and forestry, with the ‘lion’s share’ of investment in projects classified as 
agribusiness.
 
Non-sovereign investments remain limited and are concentrated in agribusiness in 
the West Africa region. Similarly to the sovereign operations, 46% projects are 
predominantly in the West Africa region.
Additionally, 60% of projects are located in 
countries the Bank classifies as being low income or middle income. A major contribution 
of the Bank to agribusiness development during the implementation of AgSS 2010-2014 
is, the African Agriculture Fund (AAF), which was created in 2010 and has now about 
US$ 250 million. Since 2008, US$0.5 billion was committed in non-sovereign guaranteed 
projects like the Morocco Office Chérifien des Phosphates (phosphate production, 
Morocco) or OKIPP (Oku-Iboku Pulp & Paper, Nigeria), while private equity funds such 
as the Agri-Vie, an equity participation in SMEs in the agribusiness sector. These 
investments cover the agriculture value chain from production to processing. However, 
only sizeable projects can benefit from Bank support, mainly because of the AfDB’s 
transaction costs and timeline. Particular attention will be paid in the future to increase the 
inclusiveness of Bank-financed project, for instance via small and medium-scale 
enterprise (SME) linkages for industrial projects or out-grower schemes with smallholder 
farmers for industrial plantations.

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Figure 21: AfDB capital approvals by sub-sector and region (UAmn, 2006-2014) 
Source: AfDB 2014
 
The Bank has also been at the forefront in supporting RMCs to manage their natural 
resources. 
This is done by: (i) supporting the sustainable development of fisheries; (ii)