On October 18, 2012, the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) is launching its activity report for the year 2011 at a press conference to throw more light on its activities worldwide with a focus on its activities in Ghana and evaluate its impact on the nation in line with the development agenda of the Ghana government.
The AFD is a public development finance institution implementing the French aid policy in the countries in which it operates. The group includes PROPARCO (subsidiary dedicated to the financing of the private sector), CEFEB (its training centre specialised in finance and banking studies - 31 professionals have already benefited from this programme in Ghana) and the FGEF (French Global Environment Fund).
The total of financing committed by AFD in 2011 amounts to almost € 7 billion (16.8 billion Ghana cedis), that represents two-third of the French bilateral aid. Sub-Saharan Africa continues to be AFD's n° 1 priority, with more than €2.7 billion in funding commitments. AFD has currently 60 offices in the world, including 30 in Sub-Saharan Africa. Infrastructure and urban development are the main sectors of intervention.
In Ghana, AFD opened its offices in 1985. Ghana is one of the main beneficiaries of AFD Group's commitments in West Africa. Since 2004, the cumulative amount of commitments reaches €732 M, among which €642 M are loans, €81 M grants (including Debt Reduction and Development Contract (C2D) and €9 M guarantees.
AFD's activities are aligned with the Government's strategy as defined in the 2010-2013 Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda (GSGDA) and in the Compact 2012-2022 signed in June 2012 by the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning and Development Partners. They are part of the French cooperation strategy in Ghana. Three sectors of concentration have been jointly decided by Ghana and France:i) agriculture, ii) urban development and support to local governments and iii) energy. France through AFD also participates in the Multi-Donor Budget Support with nine other Development Partners.
The added value and comparative advantage of AFD are its wide range of financial instruments that allows AFD to finance programmes in a sector with a mix of modalities: soft loans to the Government, direct loans to State-owned companies without the guarantee of the Government in order to avoid increasing the indebtedness of the State of Ghana (examples: Gridco and Agricultural Development Bank, loans and equity participation to private companies through Proparco, participation in Public Private Partnerships, loan guarantees in local currency (ARIZ) and grants (study funds, micro-finance and meso-finance facilities, FGEF, etc.).