World
Adesina Seeks US Support to Fund $1.5bn Africa Food Plan
By Adedapo Adesanya
The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, Mr Akinwumi Adesina, has appealed to the United States to back the institution’s $1.5 billion emergency food production plan which seeks to avert a looming food crisis in Africa caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Mr Adesina was part of a team that testified about global food insecurity and persisting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic before the US Senate subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs.
Senators Chris Coons (Delaware), Lyndsey Graham (South Carolina), Dick Durbin (Illinois), Chris Van Hollen (Maryland) and Roy Blunt (Missouri) also participated in the hearing.
Senator Coons, Chair of the Senate subcommittee, stressed that the US should move fast and provide sufficient funding, saying, “We should be concerned and even alarmed about the widening food security crisis that this war is causing for hundreds of millions far beyond Eastern Europe.”
On his part, Senator Graham expressed support for the establishment of a global fund for food security.
Speaking live via videoconference from Accra, Ghana, Mr Adesina said the proposed Africa Emergency Food Production Plan would result in the rapid production of 38 million tons of food across Africa over the next two years.
“The African Development Bank, with your support, is prepared to meet this new challenge and others head-on,” he said.
He explained that the plan is anchored on the provision of certified seeds of climate-adapted varieties to 20 million African farmers and with the disruption of food supplies arising from the Russia-Ukraine war, Africa faces a shortage of at least 30 million metric tons of food, especially wheat, maize, and soybeans imported from the two countries.
Speaking further, the AfDB chief said the lender would invest $1.3 billion in the plan’s implementation and called on the US to make up the funding balance.
“With US support to reduce the $200 million financing gap – we can ensure the Africa Emergency Food Production Plan’s success,” he said.
The Africa Emergency Food Production Plan is currently before the bank’s Board of Directors for approval.
Also providing testimony were Mr David Beasley, Executive Director of the World Food Programme and Ms Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, Chief Executive Officer of non-governmental organization Mercy Corps.
Ms McKenna said, “A perfect storm is leading to heightened global food insecurity, worse, much worse than the previous food crises over the past decade.” She cited the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change as factors sharpening the current food insecurity.
Mr Beasley said food insecurity had already begun to rise sharply before the war. He said 135 million people were acutely food-insecure before the onset of the pandemic. “COVID comes along and that number went from 135 million to 276 million people marching toward starvation.”
Mr Adesina, then, emphasized that the African Development Bank’s food production plan would foster the production of nutritious food rather than simply calories.
“One of the things we will be supporting through this emergency food production plan is bio-fortified foods. Sorghum fortified with iron. Nutritional supplementation is important,” he said
The bank’s president also said the AfDB was setting up meetings with international fertilizer companies to discuss ways to ensure that African farmers continued to have access to such inputs.
“If we don’t solve the fertilizer problem, we cannot solve the food problem.
According to him, the Africa Emergency Food Production Plan would have a long-term impact on Africa’s food productivity.
The initiative will “drive the structural changes in agriculture, to unleash the full potential of Africa to become a breadbasket to the world.”
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
A financing facility of up to $60 million has been secured by AXIAN Energy, the energy division of the AXIAN Group.
The funding package was provided by MCB, one of the leading financial institutions in the Indian Ocean region.
It comprises a $40 million revolving credit facility with a three-year tenor and extension option, and $20 million in unfunded instruments, providing AXIAN Energy with enhanced financial flexibility, enabling the company to rapidly mobilise resources and seize development opportunities across its target markets.
The energy firm is expected to use the capital to deliver large-scale energy infrastructure projects across Africa.
Over the past two years, AXIAN Energy has significantly accelerated its growth by expanding its renewable energy project pipeline, with solar projects currently under development in Senegal, Benin, Zambia, Côte d’Ivoire, Madagascar, and Burkina Faso.
Building on this momentum, AXIAN Energy now operates a portfolio comprising 350 MW of installed renewable energy capacity, supported by 77 MWh of energy storage capacity, positioning the AXIAN Group as a major contributor to Africa’s energy transition.
The chief executive of AXIAN Energy, Mr Benjamin Memmi, said, “This transaction marks a key milestone in AXIAN Energy’s growth trajectory. It provides us with the financial capacity to sustain the momentum we have built over the past two years, further strengthening our renewable energy portfolio and expanding our presence across new African markets.”
Also commenting, the Global Head of Structured Finance at MCB, Mr Mathieu Delteil, said, “We are proud to support AXIAN Energy in structuring this facility, reaffirming our commitment to enabling transformative projects across Africa.
“By leveraging our sector expertise and deep understanding of regional markets, we have delivered a tailored financing solution that aligns with AXIAN’s long-term renewable energy ambitions.
“This partnership highlights our role as a strategic financial partner, mobilising capital towards investments that drive sustainable growth and accelerate the energy transition across the continent.”
The financing agreement between the two organisations strengthens their long-standing relationship because it is driven by a shared commitment to supporting infrastructure development and economic growth across Africa.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Credit ratings agency, S&P Global Ratings, has restored the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) to investment grade, nearly 12 years after its last assessment, citing the entity’s countercyclical lending record and strong shareholder support.
The BBB+ rating with a stable outlook is one notch above Moody’s Baa2 and comes months after Afreximbank severed ties with Fitch Ratings.
The lender accused the agency of misjudging its mission, following a downgrade to junk status amid disagreements over the bank’s role in debt restructurings for Ghana and Zambia. Fitch subsequently withdrew its ratings entirely and flagged governance concerns.
S&P said in a statement on Thursday that Afreximbank’s record as a countercyclical lender and its substantial shareholder support served as rationale for its rating. Credit ratings often guide the costs of capital for a borrower.
The lender’s total assets, S&P noted, had expanded to $42.3 billion by the end of 2025, up from $7.1 billion in 2015.
S&P said it did not incorporate preferred creditor status into its assessment because Afreximbank provides almost 80 per cent of its loans to private-sector entities.
However, it acknowledged that Afreximbank, alongside other institutions, had experienced prolonged payment arrears in recent years, notably following the defaults and debt restructurings in Ghana and Zambia.
S&P noted that Afreximbank said in December that it had come to an agreement with Ghana on its $750 million loan, but that the lender had not announced a resolution with Zambia.
The agency warned that further sovereign restructurings could weigh on Afreximbank’s asset quality.
S&P’s assessment described Afreximbank’s governance and management as “adequate”, saying the inclusion of two independent directors and the African Development Bank (AfDB) as a permanent board member provided institutional oversight.
It noted that while increasing participation of private-sector investors through Class D shares could influence the bank’s risk appetite, Class A shareholders retained veto rights over big institutional changes, balancing potential risk.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Mr Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, is now a trillionaire as his SpaceX rose 11 per cent in its Nasdaq debut on Friday, lifting its valuation to about $1.96 trillion as investors piled into the world’s largest initial public offering (IPO).
The stock opened for trading at $150 compared with the IPO price of $135 per share.
The landmark listing cemented Mr Musk’s status as the first trillionaire ever and propelled SpaceX into the ranks of the world’s most valuable companies
The listing is being used as a benchmark of what is to come for the market ahead of forthcoming IPOs for AI heavyweights Anthropic and OpenAI.
The record IPO is a culmination of Mr Musk’s long-held ambitions in space and technology.
Most of Musk’s wealth now rests with SpaceX, where he holds a stake worth roughly $866 billion. Along with Tesla and the rest of his properties, his net worth will exceed $1.1 trillion when the stock begins trading on Friday.
At a quoted $75 billion, the deal’s proceeds were more than double those of Saudi Aramco’s record-setting 2019 IPO.
The valuation could rise further should underwriters exercise their right to sell additional shares, a decision typically made within 30 days after the offering.
Although SpaceX may have to wait for entry into the S&P 500, its expected fast-track inclusion in the Nasdaq 100 will soon make it a major holding for passive funds and ETFs that track the index, creating a fresh source of demand for its shares.
It will take about a month before it gets added to that index under Nasdaq’s new fast-entry rules, as opposed to a typical wait of as much as a year.
SpaceX said its market opportunity spans $28.5 trillion, a figure it called the largest in human history.
Mr Musk, 54, was born in Pretoria, South Africa, to a Canadian mother and South African father. He attended the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1997.
He took over as Tesla’s CEO in 2008. Beyond Tesla and SpaceX, Mr Musk has co-founded five other companies, including tunnelling startup The Boring Company and brain implant maker Neuralink.
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