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Can Africa Prioritise and Solve its Food Security Challenges?

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African food security

By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh

Global food security, especially in Africa, has been in the media publications these past few months. While a few outspoken African leaders shifted blame to the Russia-Ukraine crisis, others focused on spending the state budget to import food to calm rising discontent among the population. Some experts and international organizations have also expressed the fact that African leaders have to adopt import substitution mechanisms and use their financial resources to strengthen agricultural production systems.

At the G7 Summit in June, President Biden and G7 leaders announced over $4.5 billion to address global food security, over half of which will come from the United States. This $2.76 billion in U.S. government funding will help protect the world’s most vulnerable populations and mitigate the impacts of growing food insecurity and malnutrition, including from Russia’s war in Ukraine, by building production capacity and more resilient agriculture and food systems around the world and responding to immediate emergency food needs.

U.S. Congress allocated $336.5 million to bilateral programs for Sub-Saharan African countries, including Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe and regional programs in southern Africa, west Africa, and the Sahel.

Also, of this $2.76 billion, USAID is programming $2 billion in emergency food security assistance over the next three months.  As of August 8, 2022, the U.S. has provided nearly $1 billion specifically for countries in Africa toward this $2 billion commitment, including the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, and Uganda.

That compared, Russia plans to earn (revenue) $33 billion by the end 0f 2022 through massive export of grains and meat poultry to Africa. The plan aims to marginalise local production, cut out foreign contributions to support livelihoods through local production and make African leaders spend their hard-earned revenue on food imports instead of supporting agricultural production.

Primarily, Russia needs to export an estimated 50-60 million tonnes of grain this agricultural year from July 2022 to June 2023. Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev and Algerian Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Mohamed Abdelhafid Henni, co-chairing the Russian-Algerian Intergovernmental Commission in late September, agreed on increased wheat exports from Krasnodar Territory and Siberia regions to Algeria.

The Agriculture Ministry’s Agroexport Center said in a report that Russia has to increase exports to Angola. The estimated potential for Russian agribusiness exports to Angola is $100 million per year, including grains, foremost wheat, soybean oil, beef, poultry, edible pork by-products, yeast and other agribusiness products.

Agroexport Federal Center for Development of Agribusiness Exports, in close partnership collaboration with Trust Technologies and the business expert community, drew up a concept for the development of exports of principal agricultural products (grain, dairy, butter, meat and confectionery products) to promising markets of African countries. It is estimated to build on the total volume of exports to African countries, which in 2021 amounted to $33 billion.

“The African continent is an interesting and promising area for developing Russian food exports. However, when working in this market, it is important to take into account a number of factors: strong differences in the level of welfare of the population, political instability in some countries, state regulation of prices for a number of goods, et cetera,” Agroexport head Dmitry Krasnov was quoted as saying in the statement and reported by Russian media including the Interfax News Agency.

By increasing grain exports to countries in Africa, Russia aims to enhance the competitiveness of Russian agricultural goods in the African market. According to the business concept report, five African countries have been identified and chosen as target markets for the delivery of agricultural products. These are Angola, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, Tunisia and South Africa.

In sharp contrast to food-importing African countries, Zimbabwe has increased wheat production, especially during this crucial time of the current Russia-Ukraine crisis. This achievement was attributed to efforts in mobilizing local scientists to improve the crop’s production. Zimbabwe is an African country that has been under Western sanctions for 25 years, hindering imports of much-needed machinery and other inputs from driving agriculture.

At the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) summit held in September in Rwanda, President Emmerson Mnangagwa told the gathering that “we used to depend on importation of wheat from Ukraine in the past, but we have been able to produce our own. So, the crisis in that country has not affected us. There is an urgent need to adopt a progressive approach and re-purpose food policies to address the emerging challenges affecting our entire food systems.”

There are various local efforts to attain food security on the continent. For instance, the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) African Emergency Food Production Facility (AEFPF) to increase the production of climate-adapted wheat, corn, rice, and soybeans over the next four growing seasons in Africa. The International Fund for Agricultural Development’s (IFAD) Crisis Response Initiative (CRI) helps protect livelihoods and build resilience in rural communities. The Africa Adaptation Initiative (AAI) to develop a pipeline of bankable projects in Africa to leverage private equity.

The Africa Risk Capacity (ARC) Africa Disaster Risk Financing Programme (ADRiFi) helps African governments to respond to food system shocks by increasing access to risk insurance products. A fertilizer efficiency and innovation program to enhance fertiliser use efficiency in countries where fertilizer tends to be over-applied. Support for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will fund soil mapping spanning multiple countries to provide information allowing for wiser water usage, greater fertilizer conservation, and improved climate resilience impacts.

Significant to note that during the business conference held at the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center on April 22, African Development Bank Group President Dr Akinwumi Adesina, speaking as a guest of the Washington, DC, US-based think tank, called for an increased sense of urgency amid what he described as a once-in-a-century convergence of global challenges for Africa, including a looming food crisis. The continent’s most vulnerable countries have been hit hardest by conflict, climate change and the pandemic, which upended economic and development progress in Africa.

Adesina said the ramifications of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 spread far beyond the conflict to other parts of the world, including Africa. Russia and Ukraine supply almost 30% of global wheat exports, and the price has surged nearly 50% globally, reaching levels reminiscent of the 2008 global food crisis.

Adesina said the tripling of fertilizer costs, rising energy prices and rising costs of food baskets, could worsen in Africa in the coming months. He noted that wheat made up 90% of Russia’s $4 billion in exports to Africa in 2020, and of Ukraine’s nearly $3 billion exports to the continent, 48% was wheat and 31% was maize.

Adesina said Africa must rapidly expand its production to meet food security challenges. “The African Development Bank is already active in mitigating the effects of a food crisis through the African Food Crisis Response and Emergency Facility, a dedicated facility being considered by the bank to provide African countries with the resources needed to raise local food production and procure fertilizer,” Adesina said. “My basic principle is that Africa should not be begging. We must solve our own challenges ourselves without depending on others…”

The bank chief spoke about early successes through the African Development Bank’s innovative flagship initiative, the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) program, which operates across nine food commodities in more than 30 African countries. TAAT has helped to rapidly boost food production at scale on the continent, including the production of wheat, rice and other cereal crops.

“We are putting our money where our mouth is,” Adesina said. “We are producing more and more of our food. Our Africa Emergency Food Production Plan will produce 38 million metric tons of food.” He said TAAT already delivered heat-tolerant wheat varieties to 1.8 million farmers in seven countries, increasing wheat production by over 1.4 million metric tons and a value of $291 million. He added that during the drought in southern Africa in 2018 and 2019, TATT was able to help deploy heat-tolerant maize varieties, which were cultivated by 5.2 million households on 841,000 hectares.

In a similar argument and direction, the World Bank has also expressed worry over sub-Saharan African countries’ high expenditure on food imports that could be produced locally using their vast uncultivated lands and the devastating impact on budgets due to rising external borrowing. According to the bank, it is crucial to increase the effectiveness of current resources to expand and support local production, especially in agriculture and industry sectors during this crucial period of the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

In a press release titled – African Governments Urgently Need to Restore Macro-Economic Stability and Protect the Poor in a Context of Slow Growth, – High Inflation, the global lender said African governments spent 16.5 per cent of their revenues servicing external debt in 2021, up from less than 5 per cent in 2010. Eight out of 38 IDA-eligible countries in the region are in debt distress, and 14 are at high risk of joining them.

In late May 2022, the IMF and World Bank considered 16 low-income African countries at high risk of debt distress, while 7 countries – Chad, Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, Somalia, Sudan and Zimbabwe – were already in debt distress. Bright spots, such as Côte d’Ivoire and Rwanda, are expected to exhibit rapid growth in 2022, the report said. However, 33 African countries need external assistance for food, and acute food insecurity is likely to worsen in 18 of these economies in the next months.

With the above facts, African leaders have to demonstrate a higher level of commitment to tackling post-pandemic challenges and the Russia-Ukraine crisis that has created global economic instability and other related severe consequences. And this requires collaborative action and a much stronger pace of transformation to cater for the needs of the population of over 1.3 billion in Africa.

Máximo Torero, the chief economist of the Food and Agriculture Organization, has observed that African policies have relatively failed to alleviate food security problems. It has emphasised the fragility of over-dependence on a globalised agricultural system. To achieve a more integrated and regionalized agricultural system, coordinated public policy responses are needed to support agribusiness. These responses must ensure small and medium-sized farmers are included.

Action can be taken at a regional level too. And it would help identify issues relating to market access, border and transport-related problems, and possible anticompetitive behaviour. The integration of regional economies is one vehicle for alleviating pervasive food security issues. But regional integration can’t be achieved without the appropriate support for investment in production, infrastructure and capabilities.

An estimate suggests that rich Africans were holding a massive $500 billion in tax havens. Africa’s people are effectively robbed of wealth by an economy that enables a tiny minority of Africans to get rich by allowing wealth to flow out of Africa.

According to our basic research, Africa is not poor, as foreign players are stealing its wealth. But, there is $203 billion leaving the continent. Based on a set of new figures, sub-Saharan Africa is a net creditor to the rest of the world to the tune of more than $41 billion. Then there’s the $30 billion that these corporations repatriate – profits they make in Africa but send back to their home country or elsewhere to enjoy their wealth.

In an opinion article published in September by Foreign Policy in Focus, Imani Countess wrote that every year nearly $90 billion of African resources are lost to the global north in Illicit Financial Flows or IFFs. It isn’t just the Russians, but also U.S.-based corporations and others throughout the global north. Russians are flying an unprecedented huge quantity of gold out of Sudan and precious resources from the extractive industry out of the Central African Republic and Guinea.

According to him, “the financial mechanisms that facilitate illicit financial flows are complex, most often through opaque deals and contracts involving government officials. People in these plundered communities do not have a voice. They face harm to local biodiversity, loss of their livelihoods, and a lack of meaningful benefits, especially in providing sustainable development. The losses are breathtaking and heartbreaking, representing revenue that should be invested in sustainable development in Africa.”

Dr Richard Munang is UNEP’s Africa Regional Climate Change Programme Coordinator, and Ms Zhen Han is a doctoral student at Cornell University, wrote in a joint article that people living in extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa increased from 290 million in 1990 to 414 million in 2010. The region currently spends more than $35 billion on food imports annually.

Of the challenges currently facing the continent, climate change has greatly slowed down Africa’s progress towards MDGs, especially those related to eliminating hunger and poverty, improving human health and ensuring environmental sustainability. This is because climate change disproportionately affects the livelihoods of the most vulnerable population by increasing the occurrence of natural disasters, affecting the continuity of ecosystem functioning and the ecosystem services it provides. Climate change also damages the critical natural resources that vulnerable communities depend on.

Establishing food security is important for millions of people facing hunger in Africa and is crucial for sustainable economic development and the long-term prosperity of the continent. Therefore, addressing food security in a changing climate is key for a rising Africa in the 21st century. From the discussions above and various perspectives, African leaders have to focus and redirect both human and financial resources toward increasing local production, the surest approach to attain sustainable food security for the over 1.3 billion population in Africa, and this falls within the framework of the Agenda 2063 of the African Union.

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Russia-Africa Dialogue: Untapped Prospects for Economic Cooperation

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Russia-Africa Dialogue SPIEF-2026

By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh

At the St Petersburg International Economic Forum 2026, the traditional “Russia-Africa Business Dialogue”, which was initiated in 2016, will deliberate aspects of forging economic cooperation between Russia and African countries. For a decade since its creation, this platform has practically discussed most pertinent roadblocks, highlighted the economic sectors, and outlined the prospects. The significant issues have also been treated at the first and second Russia-Africa summits.

As Moscow prepares to hold the next Russia-Africa summit in October, it is quite clear that Russia has still not worked out financial mechanisms to support its investments across Africa. Generally, the federal strategy for this area has been mapped out, Russian investors understand where to invest in Africa, but lacks extremely the financial motivation and approach to integrate young people into the business environment. Other constraining factors include a lack of financial support instruments the suitable environment for experience sharing and collaboration. At the same time, there are reports that point to a broad range of factors that hinder the development of youth entrepreneurship.

Historically, Russia–Africa relations have evolved through distinct phases after phases. The latest phase began from the first Russia-Africa summit through the second, and is currently moving to the third summit in October. As part of the strategic preparations, Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan was the guest of Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin. Russia and Tanzania have had good relations, but it has been more than a century since the last state visit of a Tanzanian leader to Russia. From the historical records, Mwalimu Nyerere visited in 1969. As a result, Samia Hassan’s official working visit had a special historic significance for the bilateral relations. “We see this as a very positive sign,” noted Putin. Further to that, Samia Hassan was decorated with an honorary doctorate degree (Doctor Honoris Causa) at the Russian Peoples Friendship University, expressed gratitude for the political solidarity, and underlined Russia for the great contribution which it provided during the African political liberation in the 60s.

Tanzania’s Distinctive Profile

Sergei Kiriyenko, the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration who oversees the department, visited Tanzania after the November 2025 elections. In addition, Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov called Tanzania “one of the key partners on the African continent,” recalling that it is home to approximately 70 million people. Samia’s visit to Russia is a victory for Russian diplomacy in Africa, as Tanzania is one of those allies that strengthen Moscow, says Andrey Maslov, Director of the HSE Centre for African Studies. According to the expert, cooperation is based on mutual benefit, and Tanzania does not require assistance. The country is among the continent’s economic leaders, distinguished by high growth rates, a stable political system, and a friendly attitude towards Russia. Russia’s interest in Tanzania is largely due to its geographic location and access to the Indian Ocean. The port of Dar es Salaam is considered a key transport hub in East Africa, serving transit routes to the East African Community (EAC) countries, along with the Kenyan port of Mombasa. Given Tanzania’s population, the EAC’s combined market represents over 300 million people, and the potential for expanding trade lies primarily in agricultural products, fertilisers, and basic industrial goods.

Africa’s participation at the St Petersburg 29th forum is very unique, with the majority from East and Southern Africa. The Director General of the Tanzania Investment and Special Economic Zones Authority (TISEZA), Gilead J. Teri, noted that the Tanzanian delegation has a unique opportunity to advance its agenda and strengthen bilateral relations. The forum gave a powerful boost to trade and economic cooperation. Tanzania presented its investment potential to the Russian business community. Therefore, it could be said that bilateral relations between Russia and Tanzania are flourishing and developing dynamically today.

Eastern and Southern Africa’s Dimensions

While it envisages strengthening ties in a broad range of fields, targeting the Eastern and Southern regions by utilising Tanzania as the gateway, Russia shows that the key partners in that part of Africa. Russia’s attributes for raising investment relations are clear: stability, untapped resources and human capital.

Putin’s meeting with Tanzania’s Samia Hassan, aiming at lifting up bilateral cooperation, which symbolises a new qualitative stage or a new chapter in the relations between Russia, Tanzania and the entire SADC. “Africa is an important partner for Russia, a participant in the emerging and sustainable polycentric architecture of the world order. Our relations with the states of that continent are valuable in their own right and should not be subject to the fluctuations on the international arena,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also said long time ago at the Russia-Africa civil/public gathering held in 2018, in attendance was Stergomena Lawrence Tax, who headed the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

“We are aware that our African friends hold the same views. Relying on the accumulated experience of productive cooperation, Russian diplomats seek to pursue a consistent policy for deepening the range of Russia-Africa relations,” he added. Lavrov said it is necessary to maximise the potential of public, cultural and business diplomacy in the interests of strengthening and expanding the mutually beneficial ties between Russia and African states while invariably adhering to the principle of African solutions to African problems, formulated by the Africans themselves.

Stergomena Lawrence, however, observed that Russia has not been that visible in the region as compared to China, India or Brazil. But it is encouraging that Russia has made the decision to reposition itself as a major partner with Southern Africa. She expressed gratitude that Russia has launched a plan aimed at improving direct trade with the continent/region beyond the traditional sectors like mining, seeking to invest in areas like agriculture, industrial production, high technology and transport.

The Russian Federation’s priorities are also in line with SADC priorities, as evidenced by the priorities of the Foreign Economic Strategy in the region, as indicated below:

Prospecting, mining, oil, construction and mining, purchasing gas, oil, uranium, and bauxite assets (Angola, Namibia and South Africa);

Construction of power facilities—hydroelectric power plants on the River Congo (Angola, Namibia and Zambia) and nuclear power plants (South Africa);

Creating a floating nuclear power plant, and South African participation in the international project to build a nuclear enrichment centre in Russia;

Railway Construction (Angola);

Creation of Russian trade houses for the promotion and maintenance of Russian engineering products (South Africa).

Participation of Russian companies in the privatisation of industrial assets, including those created with technical assistance from the former Soviet Union (Angola).

In the Russian Federation, 10 SADC member countries have their diplomatic offices, namely: Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Final Words of Wisdom

In pursuit of following Putin’s policy to strengthen ties with the Global South, including Africa, Russia has to re-strategise and take up the existing critical challenges. Despite a noticeable increase in activity, Russia’s strategy on the continent faces several persistent structural limitations that require thoughtful responses. As geopolitical changes heat up, Russia has to understand the necessity to move ahead, back away from tectonic rhetoric and symbolism of diplomacy. By 2025–2026, the African continent had firmly established itself as a key area of ​​global competition and, simultaneously, one of the most important reserves of economic growth. For Russia, this is important to change the very logic of its African ties. It is logical to walk the talk. In other words, Russia’s relations with African countries have to shift from historical rhetoric to a more practical architecture of interests.

On December 19–20, 2025, the second ministerial conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum was held in Cairo, with the Roscongress Foundation acting as the operator on the Russian side. The conference was attended by the heads of the African foreign ministries and the leaders of the continent’s integration associations. That conference has been defined as a key stage in the preparations for the third Russia-Africa summit, scheduled for October 2026. As noted by Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, the meeting is intended to “give additional impetus to the development of the Russian-African partnership and the strengthening of its truly strategic nature.”

For Moscow, institutionalising the format is crucial given the overall transformation of global politics. And ultimately, Africa is becoming a space where external players’ ability to not only declare respect for sovereignty but also propose practical mechanisms for cooperation is being tested. Russia’s strategy is built on combining political rhetoric about multipolarity with concrete areas of cooperation—from trade to energy, and food security to personnel training and military-technical cooperation. Economic spheres and building infrastructures are important for Africa, which is ready for foreign investors with adequate funds and not just geopolitical rhetoric. It has to be noted that Africa is a space of competition between external players.

The continent is an arena of intense competition, with China, the European Union, the United States, Turkey, India, and the Gulf states all operating simultaneously, each offering its models of interaction: from large-scale infrastructure financing to military cooperation and religious and cultural influence. African states are becoming increasingly pragmatic and multi-vector—they are consistently expanding their foreign policy space, weighing the conditions, benefits, and political costs.

In such an environment, the sustainability of Russia’s presence is determined by its ability to offer a concrete and replicable set of advantages. Anti-colonial rhetoric and appeals to historical legacy remain important, but they no longer provide a long-term advantage on their own. Each competitive proposition must be backed by institutional support.

At the St. Petersburg forum, there was a genuine international community of like-minded partners practically united by a common goal: networking and developing business cooperation. “The continued participation confirms the demand for building relationships of business trust and confidence with foreign partners from different regions, including the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, Asia and Africa,” said Alexander Stuglev, Chairman of the Board and CEO of the Roscongress Foundation. The Roscongress Foundation held the 29th St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) from 3 to 6 June 2026.

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CANAL+ Eyes MultiChoice Turnaround as Stocks Debut on JSE

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CANAL+ JSE

By Adedapo Adesanya

CANAL+ has expressed confidence in its ability to turn around the fortunes of struggling broadcaster MultiChoice as it marks a milestone by becoming the first French company listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).

The secondary listing of CANAL+ signals strong international confidence in South Africa’s capital markets and reinforces the JSE’s role as a conduit between global capital and African growth opportunities, it said in a statement.

CANAL+ enhances the JSE’s sectoral diversity and provides local investors with direct, rand-denominated exposure to a globally diversified media and entertainment business with a significant African footprint. CANAL+ listed on the London Stock Exchange in December 2024.

The group’s listing on the JSE aligns with its long-term strategy to expand its presence in high-growth markets, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where rising connectivity, a young and growing population (expected to increase by 800 million by 2050), strong GDP growth (4.5 per cent growth expected between 2026 and 2030) and accelerating demand for content and connectivity continue to drive sector growth.

The JSE listing will increase CANAL+ liquidity and enable African investors to benefit from CANAL+ growth.

According to Mr Maxime Saada, CEO of CANAL+ said, “Joining the Johannesburg Stock Exchange is a statement of our ambition and illustrates our belief in Africa’s future and its creative industry.

“We are proud to become the first French company ever to list in Johannesburg and the only global media and entertainment company listed on the exchange.

“Following our listing on the London Stock Exchange 18 months ago, this dual listing reinforces our ambition to be a bridge between Europe and Africa and anchors our dual-continental approach, consolidating our unique position in the global media and entertainment industry,” he said.

He noted that CANAL+ serves more than 40 million subscribers and generates €9bn in annual revenue.

“Africa will be our growth engine for years to come, and we are dedicated to creating value on the continent and sharing it with our African partners, investors and the creative community. By welcoming African investors, we deepen our roots, diversify our investor base and lay the foundation for the next phase of our growth.”

Commenting on the listing, Ms Valdene Reddy, Group CEO of the JSE, said, “We are proud to welcome CANAL+ to the JSE and to mark the first listing of a French company on our exchange.

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AfDB President Sees More African Nations Regaining Investment-Grade Ratings

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Sidi Ould Tah

By Adedapo Adesanya

The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Mr Sidi Ould Tah, says more African countries are likely to regain or achieve investment-grade credit ratings by next year as reforms begin to deliver results and economic growth accelerates.

Several African sovereigns have already been upgraded in recent months, including Nigeria. However, Nigeria is not yet near investment-grade status.

In May, S&P Global Ratings upgraded Nigeria’s sovereign credit ratings to ‘B’ with a stable outlook, citing structural reforms under President Bola Tinubu and key drivers like higher oil production and improved fiscal revenue.

The country is still five notches from investment-grade. Under S&P’s rating scale, the progression follows— B → B+ → BB- → BB → BB+ → BBB- (investment grade).

S&P raised Morocco to investment grade last year and increased South Africa by one level to BB in November. Ghana, Zambia, the Ivory Coast and Kenya have also benefited from positive rating action linked to fiscal, debt and economic reforms.

“We’re quite confident that the continent will continue to grow very strongly and that African countries will be better rated in the coming years,” Mr Ould Tah said in an interview with Bloomberg.

“We’ve seen Morocco receive investment grade during the last few months, and we expect other countries by next year to get toward that,” he added.

The outlook reflects improving fiscal positions and reforms implemented across countries on the continent, even as the conflict in the Middle East threatens to slow economic growth and raise costs for energy-importing nations. Better credit ratings can help countries borrow at lower rates and fund development projects.

The AfDB projects the continent’s gross domestic product expansion will accelerate to 4.4 per cent next year, if the conflict in the Middle East does not extend for a longer period. It expects the continent to slow to 4.2 per cent this year.

The war in Iran has benefited oil producers such as Nigeria, Angola and Gabon, while exerting pressure on the fiscal positions of net energy importers such as South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Senegal.

Mr Ould Tah said the bank is ready to support countries facing budget constraints and high debt burdens due to the impact of the Iran crisis, including increasing credit lines to them.

“The board of directors of the bank will examine in the coming days how the bank can increase the volume of resources it will provide to its member countries in this specific situation,” he said.

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