AfDB crisis response framework: up to $5.1bn for energy and fertiliser shocks
The African Development Bank’s board approved a crisis framework on 1 September worth up to $5.1 billion, raising the Bank Group’s 2026 lending target to about $12.7 billion. It runs for a year and is aimed at countries absorbing higher prices for imported energy and fertiliser as trade routes are disrupted.
Up to $5.1 billion sits behind the African Development Bank’s new crisis response framework, formally the Global Energy and Fertilizer Crisis Response Framework, which the Bank Group’s board approved on 1 September.
The money comes from an additional $4.1 billion in African Development Bank lending and up to $960 million from the African Development Fund, the Bank Group’s concessional window, taking its 2026 lending target to about $12.7 billion.
Emergency and trade finance to keep energy and fertiliser supplies moving sits at its centre, alongside support for essential public spending in the countries worst affected.
Support is demand-driven, with the Bank matching financial and policy responses to each country’s level of vulnerability, and the design draws on two earlier Bank Group instruments, the COVID-19 Response Facility and the African Emergency Food Production Facility.
The Bank links the framework to the crisis in the Middle East, which it says has pushed up prices for the energy and fertiliser many African economies import, while disruption to maritime corridors has raised freight costs and slowed deliveries.
The framework runs for twelve months from its approval, after which the board will review it before any extension.
Images: AfDB
