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WORLD BANK

ew WB Africa VP takes up office

»Makhtar Diop, a Senegalese national with more than 25 years of development experience, has become the new World Bank VicePresident for Africa.

iop had been Country Director for Brazil since 2009, where he managed the World Bank’s largest country programme. Prior to joining the Bank, Diop worked at the International Monetary Fund and served as Minister of Finance of Senegal, and as Chair of the West African Monetary Union (WAEMU) Board of Finance Ministers. After joining the World Bank in 2001, he held various senior positions, including Country Director for Kenya, Eritrea and Somalia, as well as Director of Infrastructure and Director of Strategy and Operations in the Bank’s Latin America and Caribbean region.

“It is an honour to return to the Africa region as Vice-President at a time when the continent is on the rise, with strong growth led by private investment, and a new sense of optimism,” said Diop. “With world-class development knowledge and innovative financing, we can help support Africa’s momentum and ensure that all Africans, especially the poor, share in the continent’s economic and social transformation.”

he World Bank is a partner of 48 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and finances approximately 500 projects in the region. In fiscal year 2011, the World Bank committed more than $7bn in new development financing for Africa, and disbursed over $5.5bn.

64m

$1.3bn Nigeria’s lower middle class and above grew, by around 7m, to 64m, more than the entire population of most African countries.

$600m

World Bank’s $600m for Kenya: An interest-free loan of $300m for the Water and Sanitation Services Improvement Project and $300m to help fund the Nairobi Metropolitan Services

Improvement Project orandum of Understanding with multinational WAMCO to promote the development of local dairy industry, facilitate the use of locally produced milk by companies and small-scale farmers, and reduce reliance on imported milk powder.

The company will source milk from local producers and provide technical assistance by assisting in introducing best practice technologies for milk production, collection, processing, transportation, packaging and marketing to farmers.

CHINAWATCH China Daily to print Africa edition China's biggest English-language newspaper, China Daily, is to publish a weekly African edition with bureaux in at least two countries. The African op-

eration will generate a range of Africa-specific content. It will be based in Johannesburg,

South Africa, with another office possibily in Nairobi, Kenya.

Its aim is to promote China’s interests in Africa, particularly mineral exploitation and easy immigration policies, and to counter what is seen in some places as a negative reputation.

China’s state media has been given hundreds of millions of dollars to strengthen the country’s voice in the world. AGRICULTURE First pan-African support centre The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) launched the Farmer Organisations Support Centre in Africa (FOSCA), a new initiative to provide support to farmer organisations (FOs), funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

n Kenya, investment grew from virtually zero in 2009 to $1.3bn in 2010 across technologies such as wind, geothermal, small-scale hydro and biofuels Angola was the fastestgrowing economy in the world between 2001 and 2011, thanks to its oil boom Nigeria was the fourthbiggest contributor to overseas tax-free shopping in the UK last year, behind only China, Russia and the Middle East

FOSCA will work with communities to ensure that farmers are the direct beneficiaries, building on the knowledge base of farmer organisations, reaching 220,000 smallholder farmers and aiming to increase efficiency. Private sector investment At least $50m is being raised by Singapore-based Vulpes Agricultural Land Investment Company, set up by hedge-fund manager Stephen Diggle, to expand investments into Africa and Eastern Europe. His farmland portfolio has had a yield of about 5% since 2009, with land price appreciation of about 35%. The company is considering investments in Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique and currently has about $250m in assets. Africa food security trust fund Discussions are taking place on an African-funded trust fund to support food security. The Africa Trust Fund would raise resources to fight hunger and would also allow for the scaling up of successful activities to

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