Trade and Development Bank and USAID Sign MoU to Power Africa

The Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (TDB) and USAID’s Power Africa initiative have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that will finance power projects in 22 African countries.

The memorandum was signed at African Development Bank’s inaugural Africa Investment Forum, where the emphasis on investment is at the core of tens of transactions anticipated to take place.

At the signing, the Trade and Development Bank’s President and Chief Executive, Mr. Admassu Tadesse, said that TDB was very pleased to deepen its existing partnership with USAID in further support of the Power Africa Initiative, which resonates strongly with TDB’s strategy and mandate.

“We are proud to count USAID among our growing number of cooperating trade and development finance partners in the US,” said Mr. Admassu Tadesse.

As a new entrant to the program, this collaboration makes TDB the 18th development partner of the Power Africa initiative. This formalizes an already existing relationship between Power Africa and TBD, which has been working together to finance the power sector and will now further strengthen the commitment to powering Africa through local institutions.

The Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator of USAID’s Africa Bureau, Mr. Ramsey Day, said, that they were excited to welcome TDB as their 18th development partner.

“We applaud the Bank’s commitment to increase its exposure in the energy sector from its current 8 percent to 20 percent of its portfolio, the equivalent of bringing $400 million new dollars towards power sector financing,” said Mr. Ramsey Day.

At the plenary session, some of the keys take away messages exemplified by this MoU signing were to scale up, speed up, and synergize the opportunities for investment at the Africa Investment Forum.