The African Development Bank (AfDB) on Wednesday signed three protocol grant agreements with the Malawi Government worth $46.27 million (about K81 billion).
The grant agreements include $22.97 million Budget Support for implementation of various agriculture sector reforms to enhance agricultural productivity, increase commercialisation and private sector participation as well as boost resilience of the sector to climate change.
It also includes a $22.3 million Mitigating Fragility through the Africa Disaster Risk Financing Programme funded by the Transition Support Facility and Adrifi Multi-Donor Trust Fund.
In addition, the package includes $1 million emergency humanitarian assistance to complement ongoing government efforts to address the effects of El Nino in the country through purchase and distribution of food relief items to the affected communities.
AfDB Country Manager Macmillan Anyawu said the signing of the three agreements demonstrated his bank’s continued commitment to supporting and complementing government’s efforts to develop the agriculture sector and the economy of Malawi at large.
“We therefore look forward to a full implementation of the identified policy reform areas under this budget support and strengthened government capacity to respond to the prevailing climatic shock while building the resilience to climate change in the long term,” Anyawu said.
Finance Minister Simplex Chithyola Banda said the Agriculture Based Budgetary Support was designed to support the implementation of Malawi Government’s medium-term development agenda.
According to Chithyola Banda, the programme places a strong emphasis on enhancing agricultural productivity, commercialisation and strengthening public finance management.
“This budgetary support will help in creating an enabling economic and regulatory environment for agricultural transformation by Promoting agricultural productivity, commercialisation, and market access to help our farmers increase their output and connect to better markets,” he said.
He added that the signing of the three project agreements represents the collective commitment to driving agricultural transformation, strengthening public financial management and building resilience against the inevitable challenges of tomorrow.
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