Zambia’s US$5m ADF Commitment Backs Growth, Food and Energy Security
Zambia has reaffirmed its commitment to contribute US$5 million to the African Development Fund (ADF), with the payment scheduled for 2026, reinforcing the country’s support for Africa’s development financing architecture.
The announcement was made during the Fourth Consultation Meeting on the Seventeenth General Replenishment of the African Development Fund (ADF-17), co-hosted by the United Kingdom and Ghana at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London on Monday.
Zambia was represented at the meeting by High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, H.E. Macenje Mazoka, who attended on behalf of the Secretary to the Treasury, Mr Felix Nkulukusa, accompanied by Mr Shilambwe Mwaanga, Acting Director of Economic Management.
The meeting took place against a backdrop of tightening global fiscal conditions and declining aid budgets. Despite these challenges, the ADF, the concessional financing arm of the African Development Bank Group, secured a record US$11 billion from 43 partners for its seventeenth replenishment. This represents the largest replenishment in the Fund’s history and a 23 percent increase compared to the previous cycle.
According to the African Development Bank Group, the outcome of the fourth consultation meeting signals strong confidence in Africa’s development prospects, the institution’s leadership, and a new development model focused on investment, risk-sharing and scale.
“This is not just a replenishment. It is a turning point,” said Dr Sidi Ould Tah, President of the African Development Bank Group. “In one of the most difficult global environments for development finance, our partners chose ambition over retrenchment, and investment over inertia.”
Zambia first made its US$5 million pledge at the third consultation meeting held in Lusaka last year, reaffirming its role as a committed partner in supporting development financing for low-income countries.
The fourth consultation meeting generated renewed optimism that ADF resources will increase over the next three years, enabling the Fund to finance programmes aimed at reducing poverty, strengthening energy and food security, and promoting inclusive and resilient growth across the continent.
Established in 1972, the African Development Fund has invested billions of US dollars to support African governments in improving living standards, particularly for poor and vulnerable populations.
In Zambia, ADF support has delivered tangible results. In 2022, in response to fertiliser price shocks triggered by the Russia–Ukraine conflict, the Fund provided over US$14 million in working capital financing to Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia. The intervention boosted fertiliser production, reduced input costs for farmers, and strengthened the profitability of the country’s agriculture sector.
