The African Development Bank approved financing Egypt’s Food Security and Economic Resilience Support Program through a $271m loan.

In light of the current global food shortage crisis following the Russian invasion on Ukraine, this funding will help the Egyptian authorities reach their objectives of supporting agricultural productivity and sustainability as well as enhance financial resilience in regards to food security, according to Minister of International Cooperation, Rania Al Mashaat.

Al Mashaat added that the loan has a repayment period of 20 years, in addition to a 5-year grace period, which reflects the importance of such funds and the strategic relationships between Egypt and its multilateral development partners in ensuring food security.

The funding will also be supporting the government’s strategy of expanding modern irrigation systems through providing funding for farmers to use modern irrigation, following plans of starting a pilot project in each of the governorates of Qalyubia and Beni Suef to plant 433 thousand fedans with modern irrigation systems within 4 years.

The African Development Bank has been a key partner to Egypt’s development, given that the development cooperation portfolio with the African Development Bank currently exceeds $6.7 billion, through which more than 107 development projects have been financed in various sectors, including $1.1 billion that has been directed to financing private sector projects.

Read more: Egypt to receive a $500m loan from The World Bank for food security