The African Development Bank Group and the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at the Sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD VI), currently underway in Nairobi, Kenya.

The MOU was signed on Friday, August 26, by President Akinwumi Adesina of the AfDB Group and Hiroyuki Ishige, the Chairman and CEO of JETRO. The objective of the MOU is to establish a general framework to promote collaboration between the two on common interest areas such as infrastructure development in Africa, and participation of Japanese companies in the sector. The cooperation seeks to assist African countries in their development efforts in particular by promoting trade and investment between Japan and Africa.

Areas of Cooperation

1. African Development Bank Group and JETRO intend to collaborate with each other in developing and implementing programmes and projects. Priority areas of such cooperation will include:

a) Power and energy;

b) Industrialization; and

c) Private sector development including quality infrastructure.

2. African Development Bank Group and JETRO will further strengthen cooperation through knowledge partnership including research, staff exchange and knowledge sharing in the areas of common interest. Such partnership will include:

a) Region-wide partnership with Regional Economic Communities; and

b) Collaboration to foster systematic knowledge transfer between Japanese and African companies that creates significant value addition to African agricultural exports to Japan and the world.

3. African Development Bank Group and JETRO will exchange relevant information and data on matters of common interest and collaborate in the collection, analysis and dissemination of such information and data.