AFDB TO INCREASE PRIVATE SECTOR LENDING IN 2011

The African Development Bank expects to lend $2.2bn to the private sector in 2011, up from the $2bn forecast for this year, a senior bank official said on Wednesday.

According to Reuters, the bank's President, Mr. Donald Kabernka, said earlier this year that he expected overall lending to go up after the AfDB's backers gave it a three-fold increase in its capital base, partly in recognition of its role in softening the impact of the global slowdown.

'In 2011 we have many projects for the private sector in infrastructure, energy, transport, telecommunications and agriculture,' the Director of the AfDB's Private sector Department, Mr. Tim Turner, told Reuters.

He was speaking on the sidelines of a ceremony in the Tunisian capital, where the bank has its headquarters, to mark the election of Kaberuka to a second five-year term.

Kaberuka said last year the AfDB would lend about $7bn to African governments and firms in 2010. The bank's shareholders are Africa's 53 nations and 24 non-African donor countries.