Malawi and the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (Badea) have signed a $16 million (about K27.4 billion) facility for the Mponela Water Project.
Finance Minister Simplex Chithyola Banda said on Monday that the agreement was signed in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, on the sidelines of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Annual Meetings last week.
He said Badea president Sidi Ould Tah signed the facility on behalf of the bank.
“This project will help provide potable water to residents of Mponela thereby improving the quality of their lives,” Chithyola Banda said.
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He could, however, not clarify whether the facility is a grant or a loan.
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During the annual meetings, the AfDB Board of Governors, comprising Finance and Economy ministers or central bank governors of the Bank Group’s 81 regional and non-regional member countries, elected Tah of Mauritania as President of the bank.
A former minister of Economic Affairs and Finance of Mauritania, Tah has held senior roles in multilateral institutions and has led crisis response, financial reform and innovative resource mobilisation for Africa.
Addressing the Bank Group’s Governors and the media shortly after the announcement, Tah said: “Let us go to work now; I am ready.”
Tah has over 35 years of experience in African and international finance.
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He served as president of Badea for 10 years from 2015, during which he led a full transformation that quadrupled the bank’s balance sheet, secured a AAA rating and positioned it among the top-rated development banks focused on Africa.
