The African Development Bank, AfDB, has raised three billion dollars in international financial markets through a social bond to mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the lives of African people and the continent's economies.
This issue, which carries a coupon of 0.75%, and a maturity of three years, benefited from a very high quality order book of more than $ 4.6 billion. It is now the largest social bond in US dollars, having never been placed by an issuer on the international financial markets. It also represents the largest benchmark global loan ever issued by the African Development Bank.
Called " Combrattre Covid-19 ", this loan is one of the initiatives of the African Development Bank Group to provide flexible responses to reduce the serious economic and social effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on its regional member countries and on the African private sector.
"This $1 billion ' Covid-19 ' bond issue is the first part of our overall response that will be announced shortly. We are here for Africa and we will quickly provide significant support to the continent ," said Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank Group.
Cases of patients infected with the virus have been slow to manifest in Africa, but Covid-19 is spreading rapidly and has infected nearly 3,000 people in 45 countries, putting a lot of pressure on already fragile health systems.
Billions of dollars are needed to help African countries affected by the pandemic. Emergency measures have already been launched by countries, in some cases up to the cessation of economic activities, in order to curb the spread of the virus. All over the world, businesses are closed and workers have returned home. This has disrupted supply chains, trade and travel, and dragged the global economy into recession.