The African Development Bank (AfDB) will work to rebuild African countries hard hit by the Covid 19 pandemic, said on Tuesday, September 1, 2020, the President of the Institution Akinwumi Ayodeji Adesina, during his investiture at the head of the bank.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has changed everything in the world. It has eaten away at Africa's growth. (…) Africa's recovery will therefore be long and difficult. Today, we must help it recover. rebuild with audacity, but also with intelligence", declared the president of the AfDB in a videoconference.

The Bank will therefore "carefully" monitor the quality of growth, particularly in the areas of health, climate and the environment. Together with its Board of Directors, the AfDB will pay particular attention to supporting Africa with quality healthcare infrastructure and strive to leverage its comparative advantage in infrastructure. The Bank's infrastructure work will focus on quality economic, physical and health infrastructure.

In addition, for Akinwumi Adesina, the Covid 19 pandemic offers new opportunities and has brought back to the center of the discussions the imperative need to strengthen Africa's production capacities, industrial development and indispensable industrial value chains.

In April 2020, the AfDB established a COVID-19 Rapid Response Facility with a maximum amount of $10 billion to provide flexible support to sovereign and non-sovereign operations in Africa.

As of August 2020, some $2.29 billion in funds from this facility had been approved for member countries of the Bank. Finally, in March 2020, the African Development Bank mobilized a record amount of three billion dollars during the introduction of its “Fighting Covid-19” social bond issue on the London Stock Exchange.