Yesterday saw the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding by the African Development Bank and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (Unido) to increase collaborative efforts to boost industrialisation in Africa.
The agreement will see the two organisations cooperate on joint activities of shared interest in areas such as agro-industry development, eco-industrial parks, trade and capacity building, as well as access to finance.
In a statement, the AfDB said that the MoU would be key to the implementation of the bank’s Industrialisation Strategy for Africa 2016-2025 as it would benefit from Unido’s expertise in developing policies, programmes and knowledge tools.
“Achieving Africa’s industrial potential will not happen by chance; strong partnerships such as the one our two organisations have now formalised are key,” said Unido managing director, Philippe Scholtés.
The two entities have already agreed on collaboration for the establishment of staple crop processing zones in a select number of African countries.
