Moroccan minister meets officials of Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa

Moroccan minister of economy and finance, Fathallah Oualalou, met here Wednesday with executives of the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa which is holding in Casablanca a meeting of its board of governors.

The ministry said Oualalou reviewed with chairman of the bank's board of governors and general manager of the bank, respectively Abdellah Oqail and Medhat Sami Lotfi, the bank's financial and human role in consolidating complementarity between arab and african countries.

The minister hailed the bank's decision to hold in Morocco annually one of its board of directors sessions and its support to Morocco's request to host next year the meeting of arab financial bodies.

The bank governors approved new financing worth $ 36.7 million for African countries, including $ 35.36 million in development projects and $ 1.37 million in technical assistance.

Recipient countries are: Benin ($ 7.46 million), Gambia ($ 8.7 million, Guinea ($ 8.4 million), Senegal ($ 2.8 million) and Chad ($ 8 million). As part of technical assistance, two countries received direct funds: Gambia's fisheries sector obtained $ 350,000 and Kenya was given $ 200,000 to update a feasibility study on a road.

The Bank is also contributing $ 250,000 to a regional training program on agricultural policies in the continent, $ 100,000 for a training program on food industry and $ 130,000 to a training session on the preparation and evaluation of agricultural projects.

The Khartoum-based bank has a capital of $ 1.5 billion of which Morocco holds $ 18 million. The board comprises nine permanent members: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Libya, Egypt and Morocco, in addition to three other elected countries.

With these new financing, the bank's total contributions to non-arab African countries has reached $ 2.13 billion.