Africa
22 September 2026
AfDB plan joins push for fertilizer resilience
Written by Natalie Noor-Drugan
The African Development Bank Group has launched a financing framework of up to $5.1 billion to help African countries manage energy and fertilizer shocks, days after six multilateral development banks committed to a joint roadmap to strengthen fertilizer supply chains.
The African Development Bank’s Global Energy and Fertilizer Crisis Response Framework was approved on 1 September. It combines an additional $4.1 billion in African Development Bank lending with up to $960 million from the concessional African Development Fund.
The framework will operate for an initial year and provide demand-driven support to African member countries facing disruption in energy, food and fertilizer markets.
“A crisis response must do more than cushion the shock,” African Development Bank Group president Sidi Ould Tah said. “It must help countries emerge stronger, more self-reliant and better prepared for the future.”
Immediate support and reforms
The framework covers four areas: macroeconomic stabilisation; securing food, energy and fertilizer supplies; protection of essential public expenditure and vulnerable households; and reforms to strengthen longer-term resilience.
The Bank said the initiative will support countries dealing with higher commodity costs and supply-chain disruption, while seeking to reduce exposure to volatile international energy, food and fertilizer markets.
It builds on the Bank’s previous COVID-19 Response Facility and its African Emergency Food Production Facility.
Joint development-bank action
The announcement follows a 31 August statement by the African Development Bank Group, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Inter-American Development Bank Group, International Fund for Agricultural Development and World Bank Group.
The six institutions said they were ready to develop a coordinated MDB Roadmap on Strengthening Fertilizer Supply Chains with G20 governments, development partners and the private sector. The proposed roadmap would support financing for fertilizer production, upstream activities, processing, blending, storage, transport and other critical infrastructure.
“We affirm our readiness to work with G20 members, development partners and the private sector to develop a coordinated MDB Roadmap on Strengthening Fertilizer Supply Chains,” the institutions said.
The statement also calls for support for soil diagnostics, nutrient recommendations, precision nutrient management, digital agriculture, farmer advisory services, research and innovation to improve fertilizer-use efficiency.
