AfDB responds to criticism by World Bank over 'lending too quickly'
World Bank President David Malpass has claimed that some multilateral development banks “lend too quickly”, aggravating the debt problems of countries.
At a World Bank/International Monetary Fund (IMF) forum, Malpass cited the activities of the Asian Development Bank, the African Development Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, criticizing them for a “tendency to lend too quickly".
His criticism of the AfDB specifically concerned Nigeria and South Africa, and he called for “greater coordination among international financial institutions to coordinate lending and maintain high standards of transparency”.
The AfDB responded by denouncing the “misleading and inaccurate” statements, which, it said, “calls into question the integrity of the African Development Bank, undermines our systems of governance and wrongly insinuates that we operate according to different World Bank standards. The very notion runs counter to the spirit of multilateralism and our collaborative work”.
The AfDB pointed out that Nigeria and South Africa have outstanding loans from the World Bank for fiscal year 2018 of $8.3 billion and $2.4 billion respectively, and $2.1 billion and $2 billion from the AfDB.
