The African Development Bank (AFDB) said Phase 2 of its Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones, which will cover the remaining 28 States, is scheduled to take off from September 2025.
This was disclosed by the outgoing President of AfDB, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, in a paper presented at the 2025 Standard Chartered Bank Africa Summit recently held in Lagos.
According to him, the Bank is also rolling out Phase 1 of its Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones across 8 States, including the Federal Capital Territory. Construction has already begun in four states – Kaduna, Cross River, Oyo and Ogun.
Adesina said his passion to mobilise global capital for Africa’s development will continue way beyond his presidency of the African Development Bank, which ends on 1st September 2025.
In a keynote speech titled “Tilting Global Capital for Unlocking Investment Opportunities in Africa”, he said, “Together, let us tilt global capital to unlock Africa’s assets. As I step into a new future, you can be sure this will be my focus! For I will always have Africa in my heart and in my sight.”
The Standard Chartered Africa Summit, with the theme, “Africa to the Globe: Innovation, Resilience, and Growth”, brought together corporate leaders, policymakers, investors and other stakeholders.
Attendees included Standard Chartered’s Co-Heads of Corporate & Investment Banking, Sunil Kaushal and Roberto Hoornweg; Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria, Dalu Ajene; Nigeria’s Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole; Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote; Hakeem Belo-Osagie, Chairman, FSDH Group and Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School; and award-winning author, Chimamanda Adichie.
Adesina kicked off by alluding to his signature optimism about Africa’s prospects. “When I was approached to consider delivering the keynote speech, I did not hesitate. How can someone known as ‘Africa’s Optimist in Chief’ not accept to speak on Africa?”, he said.
Highlighting the African Development Bank’s focus on bold financial innovation in the last decade, Adesina declared, “The African Development Bank is not just waiting for more capital; we are innovating to do more with the capital we have. Through our balance sheet optimisation initiatives, we are stretching every dollar of risk capital further. Our ambition is threefold: free up capital, crowd in investors and amplify development impact.”
He outlined several ambitious and innovative financing solutions pioneered by the African Development Bank, supported by its AAA rating, which it has maintained over the last decade:
Over $102 billion in low-cost financing to Africa since 2015
Capital raised from $93 billion in 2015 to $318 billion in 2024, the highest in the Bank’s sixty-year history
Spearheading, in partnership with the Inter-American Development, the rechanneling of the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to multilateral development banks—a move that will of the rechanneled SDRs to be used as hybrid capital, which can be leveraged by 4-8 times.
The Africa Investment Forum, launched by the Bank in collaboration with strategic partners, has mobilised over $225 billion in investment interest across infrastructure, energy, agribusiness, manufacturing and other critical sectors since 2018
The biggest social bond issuance by multilateral development banks has amounted to $14 billion in the past eight years.
$10 billion of long-term global benchmark bonds issued in 2025 alone to finance projects across Africa
The first-ever synthetic securitisation of a non-sovereign portfolio by a multilateral development bank involved the transfer of mezzanine risk of a $1 billion portfolio of private sector loans.
The first-ever private sector hybrid capital transaction by a multilateral development bank, valued at $750 million, with over 275 investors participating with a book order of $5.1 billion, making it the largest ever book order achieved by the African Development Bank.
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A Room to Run Sovereign offering that created an estimated $2 billion in new sovereign lending headroom
16 partial credit and partial risk guarantees valued at close to $3 billion, mobilising $ 5 billion for the continent
A $250 million partial credit guarantee that allowed Egypt to raise the first-ever Panda Bond by an African country on the Chinese capital market, valued at $500 million.
Adesina urged global financial institutions to partner more strategically with the African Development Bank and other multilateral development banks to scale up capital flows to Africa.
He called for greater use of risk mitigation and credit enhancement instruments, mainstreaming of best practices in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), and increased collaboration to scale up local currency financing solutions.
Adesina was accompanied by his wife, Mrs Grace Yemisi Adesina, and a Bank delegation that included the Vice President for Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialisation, Solomon Quaynor, and the Director General of the Nigeria Country Department, Dr. Abdul Kamara.
The African Development Bank’s current active portfolio in Nigeria is the largest in the Bank, valued at $5.1 billion and comprising 52 operations, equally distributed between the public and private sectors, with 26 projects each. National operations account for 84 percent of the portfolio, while multinational operations constitute the balance of 16 percent.
