Dr Akinwumi Adesina, the president of the African Development Bank Group (www.AfDB.org), has praised Saudi Arabia for its generous “support, dedication and friendliness” to Africa where it is supporting a host of projects touching virtually all aspects of people’s everyday life on the continent. 

Adesina was speaking at the Saudi Fund for Development’s 50th anniversary celebration in Riyadh on Sunday.   

He said the fund translated the pulse of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia into development support in Africa. 

“Its work covers 407 projects in 41 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, with support of over $5.3 billion,” he declared, in an address congratulating the Fund on the landmark occasion of its golden jubilee.  

Projects the country has financed range from irrigation to produce food, dams for energy, hospitals for mothers and their babies, electricity to light up schools and enhance learning, airports and roads to link countries, counties and communities. 

The Bank Group president said the Fund was part of an ongoing attempt to forge a deeper friendship and engagement of Saudi Arabia with Africa. He said this “was evident during the Saudi-Africa Summit held by the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, attended by over 40 heads of state and government.” That landmark summit in November 2023 set out a blueprint for Saudi-Africa cooperation. 

Adesina said one thing that makes the Saudi Fund for Development to stand out in the development financing landscape was its “unlimited territorial scope”. What is important to it is: “countries need”, making it different from the approaches of other developmental partners. 

“That means: Open heart. Open hands. Open purse. Its success is rooted in its values, reflected by its acronym, SDF, which I call: Supportive. Dedicated. Friendly. That’s why countries appreciate the SDF,” he said.  

Adesina noted he had visited the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia more than any president in the history of the African Development Bank since 1964 and had forged strategic alliances with major Saudi institutions delivering billions of dollars of co-financing for projects in Africa.  

“The African Development Bank is your friend and strategic partner in Africa…I wish the Saudi Fund for Development another 50 exciting years ahead, as we partner together to support Africa with renewed dedication to accelerate Africa’s development,” Adesina concluded.